A psychoacoustic assessment for enhancing the sound quality of vibrating composite panels

Vibrating composite panels are widely used in airplanes, vehicles, and high-speed trains, where noise comfort is required. Optimizing their design requires integrating psychoacoustic assessments alongside vibroacoustic analysis. The research presents a psychoacoustic framework to enhance the sound quality of composite panels while maintaining their structural efficiency. Hence, vibroacoustic models previously validated through vibroacoustic laboratory experiments for various composite panels subjected to mechanical and diffuse acoustic excitations, were used to synthesize the sounds radiated from the panels. The framework required to validate the models perceptually. This ensured the synthesized sounds were perceived by listeners as equivalent to the recorded ones. A psychoacoustic paired-comparison test between recorded and synthesized sounds was conducted to perceptually assess the modeling. Next, the sound quality of composite panel designs was investigated. Hence, synthesized sounds of designs were evaluated through another psychoacoustic test and a preference analysis. The preference analysis identified optimal designs, correlating preferences with psychoacoustic indices, like loudness, and mechanical properties such as stiffness-to-mass ratio and damping. This integrated approach ensures that the resulting designs enhance the sound quality and meet structural performance requirements.