Investigation of occupational noise annoyance in a wind turbine power plant

Abstract

Noise, emitted by wind turbines, is one of the main health risk factors which has been recently considered in many researches. Noise annoyance is among the most important human responses to noise. The aim of this work was to modeling of annoyance due to noise at workplace coming from wind turbines in workers. All workers of a wind power plant consisted the study sample. The equivalent noise level was measured using a task-based method. Moreover, data related to noise annoyance and noise sensitivity were acquired by standardized methods. Based on the results, noise exposure, noise sensitivity, visibility, age, and experience affected noise annoyance. According to path analysis, the most indirect and direct effect on noise annoyance were attributed to noise exposure. Age, sensitivity, and noise exposure were positively associated to annoyance. It can be concluded that there is a significant relationship between age, experience, sensitivity to noise, and exposure to the wind turbine noise with noise annoyance.

Effect of personality traits on sensitivity, annoyance and loudness perception of low- and high-frequency noise

“…Respondents reported their annoyance on a scale of 0 (not at all annoyed) to 10 (extremely annoyed). According to the ISO 15666 recommendation, the degree of annoyance was classified into five categories comprising not at all annoyed (0-2), slightly annoyed (2-4), moderately annoyed (4)(5)(6), very annoyed (6)(7)(8) and extremely annoyed (8 to 10). 17 Noise sensitivity was evaluated by WNSS.…”

“…Respondents reported their loudness perception on a scale of 0 (not heard) to 6 (too loud). The amount of loudness perception was categorized into six categories including not heard (0), very soft (1), soft (2), comfort (3), loud (4), very loud (5) and too loud (6). Loudness perception displays the degree of the loudness that an individual perceives.…”

“…(3), loud (4), very loud (5) and too loud (6). Loudness perception displays the degree of the loudness that an individual perceives.…”

Recent Developments of Acoustic Energy Harvesting: A Review

“…Nowadays, we live in a noisy world, and acoustic energy is an indispensable environmental energy source. The environmental sound levels can be higher than 100 dB, and low-frequency noise is dominant in the frequency spectrum [1,2,3,4,5].…”

Human perception of wind farm vibration

“…Despite these clear benefits, the rapid expansion of wind energy has resulted in widespread community complaints regarding noise and vibration emission. [1][2][3][4][5] In a survey conducted by Møller and Lydolf 6 in Denmark on 189 annoyed persons, the authors found that many residents have a 'feeling' of vibrations, either in their body (43.9%) or through objects around them (28.8%). Results from the survey conducted by Van den Berg et al 7 also showed that apart from annoyance due to noise, 10% of respondents who live within 2.5 km of the nearest turbine noticed vibration, and 4% of respondents stated that they are annoyed by vibration (3% slightly annoyed and 1% rather annoyed).…”