Psychoacoustic assessment of a new aircraft engine fan noise synthesis method

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Vol. 132; no. 3_Supplement; p. 1926
• Main Authors: Okcu, Selen, Allen, Matthew P., Rizzi, Stephen A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.09.2012
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.4755073

Simulation of aircraft flyover events can facilitate psychoacoustic studies exploring the effects of noise generated by future aircraft designs. The perceived realism of a simulated flyover event may be impacted by the perceived realism of the synthesized fan noise of the aircraft engine. Short-term fluctuations in tonal amplitude and frequency are important cues contributing to that perception of realism, but are not accounted for by predictions based on long-term averages. A new synthesis method has been developed at NASA Langley Research Center to generate realistic aircraft engine fan noise using predicted source noise directivities in combination with short-term fluctuations. In the new method, fluctuations in amplitude and frequency are included based upon analysis of static engine test data. Through psychoacoustic testing, this study assessed perceived effectiveness of the new synthesis method in generating realistic fan noise source. Realism was indirectly assessed by judging the similarity of synthesized sounds (with and without fluctuations) with recordings of fan noise. Results of ANOVA analyses indicated that subjects judged synthesized fan noise with fluctuations as being more similar to recordings than synthesized fan noise without fluctuations.