Annoyance Caused by Simultaneous Noise and Vibration in Commercial Vehicles: Multimodal Interaction and the Effects of Sinusoidal Components in Recorded Seat Vibrations

Noise and whole-body vibrations (WBV) inside commercial vehicles can lead to annoyance and reduced comfort. As a result, negative effects on the driver can occur even below the legal exposure limits. In order to understand the annoyance perception and the interaction between noise and WBV, two perception experiments were conducted. For both experiments, recorded signals inside different commercial vehicles were used. Sound pressure and acceleration levels varied. In addition, the frequency content of the recorded vertical seat vibrations was reproduced in different modified variants. The varied parameters (sound pressure level, acceleration level and vibration frequency) were investigated within a three-factorial experimental design. It was found that noise and vibration levels, as well as the vibration spectrum, had a significant effect on total annoyance. Furthermore, an interaction between noise and vibration levels in both experiments could be observed. The results show that for the highest noise level, changing vibration exposure influences annoyance ratings less than the lowest noise level. The results also show that despite the same W-k-weighted RMS level of the WBV according to ISO 2631-1, vibration spectra with sinusoidal components or narrowband vibrations below <10 Hz were significantly perceived as more annoying during a ride in a vehicle.