Loudness and short-term annoyance of sonic boom signatures at low levels

Abstract

Supersonic aircraft produce a sonic boom when flying faster than the speed of sound. To rule out detrimental effects for inhabitants of overflown areas, civil supersonic flights (like the Concorde) were only allowed to fly at supersonic speed when over water. Due to the progress in aircraft design, the supersonic boom may be reduced considerably in the future. In this study, listening tests were carried out with a variety of low boom simulations and conventional sonic boom signatures in a similar level range. Participants rated the loudness and the short-term annoyance of 24 sonic boom signals, which differed in terms of the signature shape and maximum pressure but were confined to a range of A-weighted sound exposure levels around 60 dB(A). The results showed main effects of signature and relative level variation as well as an interaction of the two. Correlation coefficients between the ratings and sound exposure levels were highest for A-weighted sound exposure levels compared to other frequency weightings. Contrary to our expectations, the provision of background information about the nature of the presented sound sources had no statistically significant influence on the ratings.