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Volume : 44

Part : 2

Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics

 

 

Assessment of wind turbine noise in laboratory conditions

 

Dariusz Pleban1, Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute, Warszawa, Poland
Grzegorz Szczepański2, Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute, Warszawa, Poland
Anna Włudarczyk3, Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute, Warszawa, Poland
Adrian Alikowski4, Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute, Warszawa, Poland
Krzysztof Łada5, Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute, Warszawa, Poland

 

ABSTRACT

 

The development of wind energy is accompanied by an increase in the number of people whose workplaces and/or places of residence are located near wind farms as well as is accompanied by numerous questions about the influence of wind farms on humans. Among the factors related to the operation of wind farms, wind turbine noise has to be seen as a source of annoyance for both people living and working near wind farms. A test bench to conduct noise annoyance tests of different types of wind turbine noise in laboratory conditions has been developed at the Central Institute for Labour Protection - National Research Institute. The test bench is based on a multi-channel sound re-producing system using the DANTE network and is compiled in the acoustic test chamber. The test bench consists of 18 speakers (including studio monitors and woofers) and a laboratory source of infrasound. During exposure to different virtual acoustic environments, representing different wind turbine noise, participants assessed wind turbine noise annoyance. The paper describes the test bench and the results of the studies concerning the assessment of wind turbine noise annoyance.

 

1. INTRODUCTION

 

According to the data of the Statistics Poland of 2021 [1] the total share of renewable energy in primary energy generation increased from 19.74% in 2019 to 21.60% in 2020. Energy from renewable sources in Poland in 2020 mainly came from solid biofuels (71.61%), wind energy (10.85%) and liquid biofuels (7.79%). The total energy value of the primary energy obtained from renewable sources in 2020 amounted to 524 113 TJ.

 

The use of wind turbines to generate electricity has many obvious advantages. Publications [2, 3] list the advantages such as lack of fuel costs during operation and lack of harmful pollutants, including CO2.

 

Despite its advantages, the use of wind energy (wind turbines) consistently raises a number of questions and concerns. The development of the wind power industry in Poland is facing serious legal, technical, financial and social challenges [4]. The questions concerning the impact of wind farms on humans still remain valid. This impact covers many factors related to the operation of wind farms, and in particular the noise emitted by these farms. Therefore, the issue of the impact of noise from wind farms on humans is the subject of numerous scientific works. In the working environment, noise is defined as any undesirable sound which can be annoying or harmful to health, or which can increase the risk of an accident at work [5]. In the case of wind turbine noise there are many reports in the literature about the effects of this noise on people living in the vicinity of wind farms. Examples of such tests are the results contained, among others, in [6-12].

 

The questionnaire surveys, in turn, carried out cyclically by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) in Dublin as part of the reviews of working conditions shows that there is a need to assess hazards in the working environment both by objective and subjective methods. Subjective risk assessments are determined by the individual characteristics of employees, the psychological conditions of their work, as well as the sense of occupational risk. They constitute an indirect method for the employees’ assessment of occupational hazards and their effects on health and life. The significance of subjective studies is directly linked to the health definition adopted by the World Health Organization: “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” [13].

 

The purpose of this study was to carry out a subjective assessment of wind turbine noise in laboratory conditions.

 

2. METHOD

 

The study was divided into four parts. In each part of the study, there was one of the following virtual acoustic environments on the test bench [14, 15]:

 

  • wind turbine noise with the A-weighted sound pressure level in the hearing zone of 30 dB(A) (the signal A),

  • wind turbine noise with the A-weighted sound pressure level in the hearing zone of 40 dB(A) (the signal B),

  • wind turbine noise with the A-weighted sound pressure level in the hearing zone of 50 dB(A) (the signal C),

  • silence conditions (i.e. without reproducing wind turbine noise) with the A-weighted sound pressure level in the hearing zone of 20 dB(A).

 

The duration of each of the above parts of the study (i.e. duration of exposure to each of the above Signals A, D and C and duration of exposure to silence conditions) was 15 minutes. During this time, a tested person performed specific tasks on the computer, i.e. performed the ALS psychological test. Then the tested person assessed each type of the reproduced wind turbine noise.

 

In order to assess wind turbine noise, a questionnaire was prepared which constituted the research tool. The preparation of the questionnaire took into account the guidelines and principles set out in the international standard document – technical specification ISO/TS 15666: 2003 [16].

 

The questionnaire consists of the following three parts:

  • questions concerning personal data (e.g. gender),

  • questions concerning the nuisance caused by wind turbine noise (i.e. wind turbine noise assessment in a descriptive form, as well as using a numerical scale),

  • indication of the noise to which the reproduced noise was similar.

 

The elaborated test method was positively assessed by the Committee on Ethics of Research with Human Participation at the Institute of Sciences on Human Nutrition of the SGGW in Warsaw (resolution No 27/2021 of 19.07.2021).

 

3. TEST BENCH

 

A test bench to conduct the wind turbine noise annoyance tests in laboratory conditions, described in [14, 15, 17], has been modified. The test bench is based on a multi-channel sound reproducing system using the Digital Audio Network Through Ethernet (DANTE) network and is compiled in the acoustic test chamber laboratory station and was supplemented with a laboratory source of infrasound. The bandwidth of the laboratory source of infrasound is from 2 Hz to 70 Hz. The spectrum of the sound pressure level of the laboratory source of infrasound is presented in Figure 1.

 

 

Figure 1: The spectrum of the sound pressure level of the laboratory source of infrasound.

 

After all, the test bench consists of the laboratory source of infrasound and eighteen loudspeakers: sixteen Avantone MixCube studio monitors and two LS600 woofers (Figure 2). The locations of these loudspeakers (including the laboratory source of infrasound) are as follows:

  • eight studio monitors uniformly distributed on a circle on a plane parallel to the floor at head height (every 45°) where the first loudspeaker is located directly in front of the tested person,

  • four studio monitors uniformly distributed on a circle on the floor, directed towards the tested per-son at 45° in relation to the floor plane, spaced every 90°, where the first loudspeaker is shifted by 45° in relation to the position of the tested person,

  • four studio monitors uniformly distributed on a plane parallel to the floor, above the head of the tested person, at the height for which the axis of the loudspeaker and the loudspeaker plane form an angle of 45°, where the first loudspeaker is shifted by the angle of 45° in relation to the position of the tested person,

  • the laboratory source of infrasound placed on the floor, in front of the tested person’s face,

  • two woofers placed on the floor at 45° in relation to the position of the tested person.

 

 

Figure 2: The test bench to conduct the wind turbine noise annoyance tests in laboratory conditions.

 

4. TEST RESULTS

 

During the studies, involving 10 people (5 women and 5 men), GE 1.5 sle wind turbine noise was reproduced. The A-weighted sound pressure levels of the reproduced wind turbine noise were 30 dB(A) (the signal A), 40 dB(A) (the signal B) and 50 dB(A) (the signal C), respectively. Each participant answered the following questions [16]:

  • “How much does noise annoy you?”,

  • “What number from 0 to 10 best shows how much you are annoyed by noise? (If you are not at all annoyed choose 0; if you are extremely annoyed choose 10; if you are somewhere in between, choose a number between 0 and 10)”.

 

In the case of the signal A (30 dB(A)), the vast majority of the participants rated its annoyance as “slightly” (60% of the participants). On the other hand, 30% of the participants assessed the annoyance of this signal as “not at all”, and 10% of the participants gave a rating "moderately” annoyed.

 

In turn, the signal B (40 dB(A)) was assessed by almost all (90% of the participants) as “slightly” annoyed, and 10% of the participants indicated that the signal was “not at all“ annoyed. In contrast, the signal C (50 dB(A)) was rated as “moderately” annoyed by more than half of the participants (60%). 30% of the participants rated this signal as “moderately” annoyed, and 10% of the participants rated the signal C as “very” annoyed.

 

When assessing the annoyance of the signals A, B and C on a numerical scale from 0 to 10, the results of these assessments were as follows:

  • the vast majority of the participants (90%) rated the annoyance of the signal A as low, indicating ratings from 0 to 3,

  • all participants rated the nuisance of the signal B in the range from 0 to 3,

  • more than half of the participants (60%) rated the annoyance of the signal C in the range from 4 to 8, while 40% of the participants assessed the annoyance of this signal in the range from 1 to 3,

  • in the case of the signal A, the average annoyance score was 1.2,

  • in the case of the signal B, the average annoyance score was 2.15,

  • in the case of the signal C, the average annoyance score was 4.8.

 

The participants were also asked to indicate the noise to which the reproduced noise was similar. In this case, they could give one of the following answers about the similarity of the reproduced signal to:

  • road/traffic noise,

  • industrial noise (noise emitted by machinery and equipment),

  • noise emitted by agricultural machinery and equipment,

or they could indicate another type of noise or other sources of noise.

 

The study participants found that the signal A was similar to:

  • wind noise (30% of the participants),

  • road/traffic noise, industrial noise and noise generated by the sea – 20% of the participants each,

  • nature noise (10% of the respondents).

 

The same group of people found that the signal B was similar to:

  • road/traffic noise (50% of the participants),

  • industrial noise (20% of participants),

  • wind noise, noise generated by the sea and noise generated by agricultural machinery and equipment – 10% of the participants respondents each.

 

In contrast, the signal C was rated as similar to:

  • industrial noise (by 40% of the participants),

  • road/traffic noise (by 30% of the participants),

  • wind noise (by 20% of the participants),

  • noise generated by the sea (by 10% of the participants).

 

4. CONCLUSIONS

 

The developed test bench enables among others to perform the assessment of wind turbine noise annoyance in laboratory conditions.

 

Based on the obtained results, it can be observed that the increase of the A-weighted sound pressure level of the reproduced wind turbine noise results in the decrease of the noise annoyance. The vast majority of the tested people assessed the wind turbine noise annoyance as “slightly” when the A-weighted sound pressure level does not exceed 40 dB(A).

 

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

This paper is based on the results of a research task carried out within the scope of the fifth stage of the National Programme “Improvement of safety and working conditions” supported within the scope of state services by the Ministry of Family and Social Policy.

 

Task No. 2.SP.02 entitled “Testing of the nuisance of audible noise and low-frequency noise of wind turbines due to the possibility of employees performing their basic tasks at workplaces located near wind farms”

 

The Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute is the Programme’s main co-ordinator.

 

6. REFERENCES

 

  1. Główny Urząd Statystyczny/Statistics Poland, Energia ze źródeł odnawialnych w 2020 r./Energy from renewable sources in 2020, Warszawa/Warsaw, 2021.
  2. Jędral, W. OZE i efektywność energetyczna w kontekście wyzwań dla wytwarzania i użytkowania energii elektrycznej w Polsce. Rynek Energii, 5, 3–8 (2019).
  3. Jurczyk, M. & Węcel, D. Koncepcja stanowiska badawczego wyposażonego w turbinę wiatrową małej mocy o poziomej osi obrotu. Rynek Energii, 5, 9–13, (2019).
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  14. Pleban, D., Radosz, J., Szczepański, G., Kapica, Ł. & Cempel, C. Ocena wpływu hałasu turbiny wiatrowej na wydajność pracy człowieka – badania pilotażowe. Rynek Energii, 1, 46–51 (2021).
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  16. International Organization for Standardization (ISO), ISO/TS 15666 Acoustics – Assessment of noise annoyance by means of social and social – acoustics surveys, 2003 Edition.
  17. Pleban, D., Szczepański, G., Radosz, J. & Morzyński, L. Stanowisko laboratoryjne do odtwarzania hałasu turbin wiatrowych. Materiały XLVIII i XLIX Szkoły Zimowej Akustyki Środowiska i Wibroakustyki, pp 73–84. Gliwice-Szczyrk, Poland, February – March 2022.

 

1daple@ciop.pl

2 grszc@ciop.pl

3anwlu@ciop.pl

4adali@ciop.pl

5 krlad@ciop.pl