Perceptual assessment of modeled aircraft cabin noise in early design stages

This study explores the potential of simulation methodologies in the early stages of the acoustic design of aircraft cabins. This approach includes conducting listening experiments based on the auralization of simulation results and, therefore, enabling early psychoacoustic assessments. First of all, an aircraft cabin was simulated under the stochastic load of a turbulent boundary layer and its system response was auralized as representative cabin noise. The listening experiments investigated the impact of cabin parameter variations – specifically Young’s modulus, skin thickness, and fluid bulk modulus – on the participants’ perception and preferences. The findings show that utilizing the presented methodology within an early design scope produced audible differences for these parameter variations. With significant changes to the signals’ preference probabilities, the proposed method is able to provide better understanding and statistical depth to the cabin acoustic design process. Here, the selected Young’s modulus variations had a lesser impact on noise perception with preferences similar to the reference signals, whereas the applied variations to skin thickness and the cabin fluid’s bulk modulus resulted in clearly altered preference probabilities. Loudness and A-weighted sound pressure level values reliably predicted preferences, whereas other psychoacoustic metrics were of little significance, probably due to the stochastic, stationarity, and low-frequency characteristics of the noise samples. Furthermore, the position of the passenger within the cabin model significantly affected the preferences, even altering the signal rankings. Adding authentic cabin sounds to the auralizations did not significantly alter the parameter variations’ preference distributions, even though the participants’ feedback implied that it had an effect on their perception of the presented sound samples.