Human Perception and Fan Noises

Panel Session - Sound Quality: a New Requirement for Fan Manufacturers

Human interactions with external environment need to be very efficient in a survival mode and there is a very good match between sound perception and external stimuli such as speech, which is a key communication skill. But global perception is related to all senses.
New technologies products are created to enhance human comfort. They produce sounds and can be evaluated in a human perception point of view. Different perceptive quotation scales are discussed. An overview of Psychoacoustics tools applied to fan noises is presented.
Comfort enhancement strategy for Automotive Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning systems consists in a first step in a classification into different noises characteristics and presence conditions. In a second step, optimisation of the main perceptive characters of each pre-classified noise is proposed, generally involving other comfort parameters. Concerning Automotive Cooling Fan systems, Loudness criterion is the main characteristic of the acoustic annoyance.