MIRE-IL methodology applied to measuring the noise attenuation of earmuff hearing protectors

This article describes an objective methodology for measuring the noise attenuation of earmuff hearing protectors using as a reference the method known as microphone-in-real-ear (MIRE). The methodology implements the insertion loss (IL) paradigm, in which IL is measured using miniature microphones, specially designed to comply with ANSI and ISO standards for the MIRE technique. The results for four different hearing protectors are compared with the subjective method known as real-ear-attenuation-at-threshold (REAT). Correction factors are included in the methodology to account for external effects such as physiological noise and bone conduction. The objective method predicted well the real protection of the earmuffs and the proposed methodology showed lower standard deviation values than the REAT method.     

Speech recognition in noise with active and passive hearing protectors: a comparative study

The perceived negative influence of standard hearing protectors on communication is a common argument for not wearing them. Thus, "augmented" protectors have been developed to improve speech intelligibility. Nevertheless, their actual benefit remains a point of concern. In this paper, speech perception with active earplugs is compared to standard passive custom-made earplugs. The two types of active protectors included amplify the incoming sound with a fixed level or to a user selected fraction of the maximum safe level. For the latter type, minimal and maximal amplification are selected. To compare speech intelligibility, 20 different speech-in-noise fragments are presented to 60 normal-hearing subjects and speech recognition is scored. The background noise is selected from realistic industrial noise samples with different intensity, frequency, and temporal characteristics. Statistical analyses suggest that the protectors' performance strongly depends on the noise condition. The active protectors with minimal amplification outclass the others for the most difficult and the easiest situations, but they also limit binaural listening. In other conditions, the passive protectors clearly surpass their active counterparts. Subsequently, test fragments are analyzed acoustically to clarify the results. This provides useful information for developing prototypes, but also indicates that tests with human subjects remain essential.     

The typical noise: first step in the development of a short procedure for estimating performance of hearing protectors

An exact measurement of the effectiveness of a hearing protector requires the determination of how well it works in the specific noise in which it is to be worn. As a practical matter, though, people do not generally remain in a single noise spectrum throughout a working career or even throughout a working day, so it does not matter so much that most measurers are not likely to be equipped to perform spectrum analyses. Other techniques for judging earplugs and earmuffs are obviously necessary. Previous research has tried to find the average attenuation given by a particular device in several (or many) noises, or it has tried to deal with the attenuation given in noises given with particular C-minus-A values. In this paper, a procedure is developed for compressing these multiple-spectra calculations into a single-spectrum computation that proves to be at least as accurate as the more complex methods.     

An acoustic head simulator for hearing protector evaluation. II: Measurements in steady-state and impulse noise environments

The attenuation characteristics of hearing protection devices (HPDs) were measured using a modular acoustic head simulator. The effect in changes in the head configuration was assessed in a steady-state diffuse sound field. The use of artificial circumaural skin had a relatively small influence on the insertion loss of earmuffs (max. 6-7 dB at low frequencies). This contrasts to the very large effects found for the artificial intraaural skin on the insertion loss of earplugs (in excess of 40 dB at low frequencies for some devices). Results were also compared with real-ear attenuation at threshold (REAT) data (ANSI S3.19-1974). In general, there is good agreement between the two methods, especially for earmuffs. Design improvements are proposed for earplugs. The result of an exploratory study aimed at measuring the complex (amplitude and phase) insertion loss of HPDs using an impulse noise source are also reported.     

A field study to assess the effects of wearing hearing protectors on the perception of warning sounds in an industrial environment

A field study has been performed which assessed the effectiveness of two warning sounds under realistic factory conditions. The thirty subjects were press operators who were involved in their regular work activities during the course of the experiment. The noise levels at their work stations were in the range 85 to 95 dB(A). The warning sound, plus four other irrelevant sounds, each at one of five different intensities, were presented via a loudspeaker in random order and at random time intervals (mean inter-stimulus interval, 30 s; range, 10 to 50 s). The influence of the factors hearing level and age of the subjects and use of hearing protection were investigated.The results showed significant differences between the intentional and incidental warning sounds investigated. Whilst the perception of the intentional horn warning sound was unaffected by the hearing sensitivity of the subjects and the wearing of hearing protectors, these two factors had a significant effect on the perception, as a warning, of the clinking sound of metal components. Subjects classified as having a substantial hearing loss perceived, on average, 18 percent fewer clinking sounds than those subjects with normal hearing or a mild hearing loss and, when wearing hearing protectors, the subjects overall perceived, on average, 9 percent fewer clinks. It is of note that the results of the field study differ from those of earlier laboratory-based experiments in finding that the distinctive intentional warning sound was not entirely reliable as a warning, even at levels substantially above its masked threshold, and in observing more than double the adverse effect of wearing hearing protection.     

Design of a pulse generator and shock tube for measuring hearing protector attenuation of high-amplitude impulsive noise

The effectiveness of hearing protectors against high amplitude impulse noise levels remains the subject of research with objective testing techniques using acoustic test fixtures offering the only realistic method of providing rapid performance data for protector design and qualification. The work presented in this paper examines a prototype test method based on a shock tube and acoustic test fixture for the evaluation of protectors against high-level impulsive noise where established real ear attenuation at threshold methods would be impractical to apply. The results show that the system is capable of producing controlled repeatable high amplitude pressure pulses of variable duration for testing hearing protection devices in a grazing wave type test. A series of pilot tests illustrate how the system can have a sufficient self-insertion loss to reject flanking noise and allow the measurement of protector attenuations of up to 45 dB with little corruption from flanking noise.     

Effects of nosocusis, and industrial and gun noise on hearing of U.S. adults.

Hearing losses estimated for exposure to industrial and gun noise and for "typical" nosocusis are applied to the distributions of the hearing levels of adult males and females of the general population of an industrialized society unscreened for exposure to noise or ear disease. Noise exposure and demographic data applicable to the United States, and procedures for predicting noise-induced permanent threshold shift (NIPTS) and nosocusis, were used to account for some 8.7 dB of the 13.4 dB average difference between the hearing levels at high frequencies for otologically and noise screened versus unscreened male ears; (this average difference is for the average of the hearing levels at 3000, 4000, and 6000 Hz, average for the 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles, and ages 20-65 years). According to the present calculations, this difference is due, in order of importance, to (1) nosocusis, (2) exposure to gun noise, and (3) exposure of workers to industrial noise. For these same frequencies and overall average, adjustments for nosocusis accounts for 2 dB of the 5.9-dB difference between the hearing levels of screened and unscreened female ears. For the average at 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz, the overall differences between the screened and unscreened populations is but 3.4 dB for males and 2.9 dB for females. The adjustment procedures reduced these differences to -0.5 and 0.9 dB, respectively.     

The importance of "temporal pattern" in traumatic impulse noise exposures

The equal energy hypothesis (EEH) was evaluated for impulse noise. Specifically, the experiments evaluated the importance of the temporal distribution of impulses; the trading relation between the number of impulses and peak level and the difference between continuous and impulse noise. Monaural chinchillas were exposed to one of seven conditions. Their hearing was evaluated before, immediately after, and 30 days after the exposure. Hair cell damage was reported in the form of a cochleogram. The experiments show that the EEH is more appropriate for low-level impulse (135-dB peak); for equal amounts of energy, 150-dB impulses produce more hearing loss and hair cell damage than 135-dB impulses; for equal amounts of energy, impulses presented in rapid bursts cause less damage than impulses presented at "1/s" and 50 microseconds. Pairs of impulses presented at "1/s" produce the largest amount of damage. The results are discussed in terms of implications for the EEH.     

Sound propagation in forests: A comparison of experimental results and values predicted by the Nord 2000 model

The purpose of the work described in this paper is twofold: (i) to present the results of an experimental investigation of the sound attenuation in different types of forest, and (ii) to validate a part of the Nord 2000 model. A number of measurements have been carried out in regular and irregular forests with trees with deciduous and evergreen leaves, different tree density, different trunk diameter, etc. The experimental results indicate that trees have a noticeable effect on sound propagation at medium and high frequencies at distances longer than 40 m. The Nord 2000 model uses a simple algorithm to predict scattering effects when sound propagates in outdoor spaces with obstacles. The comparison of experimental results and predictions shows that the Nord 2000 model predicts the ground effect dip in forests with acceptable accuracy in about 60% of the cases if the flow resistivity of the ground is allowed to vary with distance. The high frequency effect of trees is in general not predicted very well.     

The effect of impulse intensity and the number of impulses on hearing and cochlear pathology in the chinchilla

Forty-one chinchillas, divided into seven groups, were exposed to 1, 10, or 100 noise impulses (one every 3s) having peak intensities of 131, 135, 139, or 147 dB. Hearing thresholds were measured in each animal before and after exposure using an avoidance conditioning procedure; a surface preparation of the cochlear sensory epithelia was performed approximately 90 days after exposure. There was generally an orderly relation between the amount of permanent threshold shift and the severity of exposure, and a general agreement between averaged histological data and the audiometric data. For the impulses used in this study, there is a range of intensities which is bounded on the high side by the intensity which just produces injury with single impulse exposures and bounded on the low side by a critical intensity below which the injury potential drops precipitously with a reduction of impulse intensity. This region is only about 10-15 dB wide for the exposure conditions of this experiment. Within this region, the threshold of injury is a constant total energy; i.e., 10-dB change of intensity implies a tenfold change in the number of impulses for threshold injury. Detailed relations between temporary and permanent threshold shift, cochlear pathology, and exposure variables are discussed, as are the implications of these data to the development of exposure criteria.     

Speech recognition in noise as a function of the number of spectral channels: comparison of acoustic hearing and cochlear implants

Speech recognition was measured as a function of spectral resolution (number of spectral channels) and speech-to-noise ratio in normal-hearing (NH) and cochlear-implant (CI) listeners. Vowel, consonant, word, and sentence recognition were measured in five normal-hearing listeners, ten listeners with the Nucleus-22 cochlear implant, and nine listeners with the Advanced Bionics Clarion cochlear implant. Recognition was measured as a function of the number of spectral channels (noise bands or electrodes) at signal-to-noise ratios of + 15, + 10, +5, 0 dB, and in quiet. Performance with three different speech processing strategies (SPEAK, CIS, and SAS) was similar across all conditions, and improved as the number of electrodes increased (up to seven or eight) for all conditions. For all noise levels, vowel and consonant recognition with the SPEAK speech processor did not improve with more than seven electrodes, while for normal-hearing listeners, performance continued to increase up to at least 20 channels. Speech recognition on more difficult speech materials (word and sentence recognition) showed a marginally significant increase in Nucleus-22 listeners from seven to ten electrodes. The average implant score on all processing strategies was poorer than scores of NH listeners with similar processing. However, the best CI scores were similar to the normal-hearing scores for that condition (up to seven channels). CI listeners with the highest performance level increased in performance as the number of electrodes increased up to seven, while CI listeners with low levels of speech recognition did not increase in performance as the number of electrodes was increased beyond four. These results quantify the effect of number of spectral channels on speech recognition in noise and demonstrate that most CI subjects are not able to fully utilize the spectral information provided by the number of electrodes used in their implant.     

Expansion-chamber muffler for impulse noise of pneumatic frictional clutch and brake in mechanical presses

A compound expansion-chamber muffler, which consists of a sound absorbing chamber and a switch valve, the chamber integrating structural features of impedance muffler and micropunch plate muffler, is proposed to diminish impulse exhaust noise of pneumatic friction clutch and pneumatic friction brake (PFC/B) in mechanical presses. The structure decreases the impulse exhaust noise of PFC/B over 30 dB(A). A one-dimensional flow model is applied to study the aerodynamic characteristics of compound exhaust process of the single acting cylinder and muffler because the exhaust time is a critical factor for application of muffler in PFC/B. The volume of sound absorbing chamber is found to be an important design parameter to minimize the exhaust resistance of pneumatic cylinder. Experiments are also conducted to validate analytical results. Then the effects of diameter of exhaust ducts and volume of muffler on the exhaust time are discussed in detail. The proposed one-dimensional computational method, which considers the coupling of air-flow field and sound field, gives satisfactory results for the preliminary design of an expansion-chamber muffler. This method has been applied to an existing model HKM3-40MN to reduce its impulse noise.     

The assessment of noise from industrial plants by direct measurement and by calculation

The noise levels measured at a distance of 1000m from an industrial plant can vary within a range of 20 dB(A) due to the effects of weather and extraneous sources. This paper examines the use of various statistical parameters for assessing the noise due to the plant and describes a method of minimising the effect of extraneous noise due to traffic. The choice of parameter influences the attenuation data to be used in calculating the noise from new plants. Some typical measurements from a large industrial plant are presented. The paper emphasises the need to agree on a single parameter which can be used for calculations, for assessing measured noise levels, and for comparison with legal or noise criteria, and recommends the general adoption of L_eq.     

Effects of age and mild hearing loss on speech recognition in noise

Using an adaptive strategy, the effects of mild sensorineural hearing loss and adult listeners' chronological age on speech recognition in babble were evaluated. The signal-to-babble ratio required to achieve 50% recognition was measured for three speech materials presented at soft to loud conversational speech levels. Four groups of subjects were tested: (1) normal-hearing listeners less than 44 years of age, (2) subjects less than 44 years old with mild sensorineural hearing loss and excellent speech recognition in quiet, (3) normal-hearing listeners greater than 65 with normal hearing, and (4) subjects greater than 65 years old with mild hearing loss and excellent performance in quiet. Groups 1 and 3, and groups 2 and 4 were matched on the basis of pure-tone thresholds, and thresholds for each of the three speech materials presented in quiet. In addition, groups 1 and 2 were similar in terms of mean age and age range, as were groups 3 and 4. Differences in performance in noise as a function of age were observed for both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners despite equivalent performance in quiet. Subjects with mild hearing loss performed significantly worse than their normal-hearing counterparts. These results and their implications are discussed.     

Speech intelligibility of normal listeners and persons with impaired hearing in traffic noise

Speech intelligibility (PB words) in traffic-like noise was investigated in a laboratory situation simulating three common listening situations, indoors at 1 and 4 m and outdoors at 1 m. The maximum noise levels still permitting 75% intelligibility of PB words in these three listening situations were also defined. A total of 269 persons were examined. Forty-six had normal hearing, 90 a presbycusis-type hearing loss, 95 a noise-induced hearing loss and 38 a conductive hearing loss. In the indoor situation the majority of the groups with impaired hearing retained good speech intelligibility in 40 dB(A) masking noise. Lowering the noise level to less than 40 dB(A) resulted in a minor, usually insignificant, improvement in speech intelligibility. Listeners with normal hearing maintained good speech intelligibility in the outdoor listening situation at noise levels up to 60 dB(A), without lip-reading (i.e., using non-auditory information). For groups with impaired hearing due to age and/or noise, representing 8% of the population in Sweden, the noise level outdoors had to be lowered to less than 50 dB(A), in order to achieve good speech intelligibility at 1 m without lip-reading.     

Attenuation of hearing protectors for pure-tones and 13-octave bands of noise

Eleven hearing protectors were tested according to the Argentinian Standard (IRAM 4060) with pure tones and random noise filtered in 1/3-octave bands as the test stimuli. Although the differences between the standard deviations are not statistically significant, there are significant differences between mean values for the two types of test signal. This indicates that a re-examination of the standard method is required.     

The attenuation of lined plenum chambers in ducts,II: Measurements and comparison with theory

Experimental measurements of the acoustic performance of single and three-pass lined plenum chambers are compared to calculations based on theoretical models described in a companion paper [1]. Generally, quite good agreement is obtained, subject to the limitations of the theories. For the sake of completeness, comparison is made between the performance of a single plenum chamber and that of an equivalent splitter silencer. The two are seen to differ somewhat in their attenuation characteristics. The aerodynamic pressure losses of all three silencers are compared, and observations are made concerning the relative mass, construction time, et cetera, of the single chamber and the splitter. A tentative design procedure for plena is suggested.     

Statistical comparison of reverberation times measured by the integrated impulse response and interrupted noise methods, computationally simulated with ODEON software, and calculated by Sabine, Eyring and Arau-Puchades’ formulas

This paper evaluates several procedures to determine the reverberation time, RT, in a classroom. These procedures are: (1) measurement by the integrated impulse response method, (2) measurement by the interrupted noise method, (3) computer simulation using ODEON Version 9.0 software, and (4) calculations using the Sabine, Eyring, and Arau-Puchades formulas. The resulting data are analyzed statistically to verify their similarity. No statistical difference was found between the values obtained by the two measuring methods. The computer simulation produced accurate data. The best formula for calculating RT in the classroom in question is Eyring’s formula.