Psychoacoustical measurements protocol and report template

The tyre/road noise is still a topic of many researches, due to the reduction of engine noise emission regulated by even more severe limits and also because of the growing market of hybrid electric and electric vehicles. While the acoustic performances of road pavements can be characterized by standardized procedures, up to now such standardization does not exist for the characterization of the perceptual qualities of the tyre/road noise. Psychoacoustic knowledge, taking into account the cognitive aspects of noise, enables to describe, by relevant parameters, the transformation of a sound event into an auditory event. The literature on the application of psychoacoustic parameters to tyre/road noise is not so abundant as expected. However, all the studies retrieved converge to the conclusion that these parameters are a step forward the description of the perceptual qualities of the tyre/road noise and the induced annoyance of the exposed population. An experimental protocol is proposed to perform binaural digital sound recordings needed for an aurally-adequate analysis and to determine the main psychoacoustic parameters, that is loudness, sharpness, roughness, fluctuation strength and their combination to model the psychoacoustic annoyance. Forms for reporting the data capture in the field survey and the results of the sound analysis in laboratory are outlined too.