Title: Analysis of sound characteristics to design an annoyance metric for rattle sounds in the automotive industry

Authors: Mohsen Bayani; Casper Wickman; Rikard Söderberg

Addresses: Personal Driving Experience Centre, Volvo Car Corporation, Gothenburg, 40531, Sweden ' User Experience, Volvo Car Corporation, Gothenburg, 40531, Sweden ' Department of Industrial and Materials Science, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, 41296, Sweden

Abstract: In this research, a new objective psychoacoustic metric for predicting the annoyance level of the rattle sounds in the automotive industry is proposed. Compared to previous works, in addition to the standard psychoacoustic metrics, new statistical measures of average relative prominence and normalised number of peaks are introduced and employed. A subjective listening test was conducted to elicit the perception of annoyance level of the rattle sounds by the car users. The subjective test was based on the new method of paired comparison with indirect magnitude estimation, developed and proposed in this study by the authors. Accuracy of the metric proposed was checked by the coefficient of determination and error measures. The perceived annoyance metric proposed can be tuned for predicting other similar impulsive sounds in other disciplines as well. Also, the authors would like to encourage other researchers to employ the subjective test method proposed for other similar applications.

Keywords: sound characteristics; sound annoyance metric; rattle sound; automotive industry; squeak and rattle; relative prominence; subjective listening test; annoyance perception; paired comparison; magnitude estimation; impulsive sound.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVNV.2021.123417

International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration, 2021 Vol.17 No.3/4, pp.137 - 161

Received: 04 Apr 2020
Accepted: 09 Dec 2020
Published online: 20 Jun 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article