Study on the effect of sound duration on the annoyance of helicopter noise by applying a technique of time compression and expansion of sound signals

The number of helicopter operations has rapidly increased during the last 20 years in Japan. Helicopter noise sounds different from other aircraft; the waveform of the sound pressure is impulsive and the signal duration is relatively long. The Environmental Agency of Japan implemented new guidelines for evaluating noise exposure around small airports, including heliports, in 1990. This study was executed in connection with the development of provisional guidelines. Psychoacoustic experiments were carried out to identify an evaluation index for helicopter noise. In order to examine the effect of duration independently, we not only used original sound recordings, but also synthesized sound signals. The durations of these sound signals were time compressed or expanded without degrading the quality of the original sound recording. The test results show that the effect of duration is significant, and that the A-weighted sound exposure level is a better index than the maximum A-weighted sound pressure level for the evaluation of helicopter noise.