The use of synthesised or actual wind turbine noise for subjective

evaluation purposesSteven Cooper

23rd International Congress on Acoustics

Two distinct steps to be undertaken in establishing the Relationship of wind farm noise to impacts.

Step 1

• Use Acousticians and Psychoacousticians

• Acoustic measurements of wind farm noise

• Psychoacoustic assessment of community response

• Determine acoustic signature

• Accurately re-create acoustic signal

Two distinct steps to be undertaken in establishing the Relationship of wind farm noise to impacts.

Step 2 (Following Step 1 + on site sleep studies, with acoustic measurements)

This involves multidisciplinary research involving acousticians and psychoacousticians, together with experienced medical practitioners, researchers and clinicians, including but not limited to the following speciality areas:

• Sleep Physicians & physiologists

• Ear Nose & throat physicians and physiologists

• Neuroscientists

• Psychiatrists & Psychologists

• Cardiologists and cardiac physiologists

• Endocrinologists

• Rural General Practitioners

• Occupational Health Physicians

CBW Turbine 13 at 14% power

FFT vs Time (0-1 kHz, 400 lines)

FFT (0-1 kHz, 400 lines)

A-weighted Time Splice

Kelley N.D., Hemphill R.R. and McKenna H.E. A Methodology for Assessment of Wind Turbine Noise

Turbine noise emission components with building and human body resonances superimposed

Cape Bridgewater Wind Farm, House 87 Bedroom, 5:30 am 22 May 2014, Leq, 10 minute FFT (1600 lines)

0 – 25 Hz 0 – 1 kHz

100 Hz 100 ms Burst

0 40m 80m 0.12 0.16 0.2 0.24 0.28 0.32 0.36

[s]

-0.24

-0.2

-0.16

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-80m

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0

40m

80m

0.12

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[V]

Generator (Real)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1k

[Hz]

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100Hz (100ms, 1Hz Burst) - Generator (Free Running Trigger) (Real)

0 4 8 12 16 20 24

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100Hz (100ms, 1Hz Burst) - Generator (Real)

Shirley Wind Farm Report with manufacturers frequency response of speaker used in Crichton paper shown in orange trace

Walker B & Celano J “Progress Report on Synthesis of Wind Turbine Noise and Infrasound”

Walker Synthesised Waveform

Original Waveform

Original FFT (1600 lines, 0-25 Hz)

Tonin Results (synthesised)Cooper Results (field measurements)

Waveform

FFT (0-25 Hz, 1600 lines)

Annexure D of ANSI/ASA S12.9-2016/Part 7 “Advanced Signal Processing Techniques”It has been observed (Bray, Swinbanks, Walker, et al) that for complex low-frequency signals (those comprising multiple frequencies), the temporal relationship between the components can have a significant influence on their subjective assessment. (Indeed, al one needs do is listen to the difference between a gun-shot and an extended Galois sequence signal to observe the two signals with the exact same spectrum can sound dramatically dissimilar.)

Line Array Speaker System (2.5 inch rivers) showing the

Cape Bridgewater Signal

Conclusion

• Testing of wind turbine infrasound should use actual signals of wind turbines and not a tone or a synthesised signal

• Infrasound levels attributed to wind turbine noise are less than the threshold of audibility for constant tones and therefore should be inaudible.

• Why test for infrasound only when wind turbine noise contains frequencies in the audible spectrum?

• The infrasound signature obtained by narrowband FFT analysis is the result of an analysis of transient pulses that can be derived by modulating sounds of much higher frequency

• For testing of wind turbine noise (including infrasound?) in a more practical sense, would be easier and realistic to simply use wave file recordings