A Multidimensional Evaluation of the Perception and Annoyance Caused by Railway Induced Groundborne Vibration

This paper presents a study investigating seated subjects' perception of railway induced groundborne vibration in the vertical direction. Previous studies into the perception of railway induced vibration have treated this phenomenon as a unidimensional problem. The aim of the study detailed in this paper is to determine if the perception of railway induced groundborne vibration is multidimensional in nature and if the resulting perceptual dimensions can be related to a measure of annoyance. Twenty-one subjects took part in paired comparison tests of similarity and annoyance. These tests were conducted using fourteen measured vibration stimuli selected to be representative of groundborne vibration induced by railway activities in the United Kingdom. Through multidimensional scaling analysis, it is shown that the perception of railway induced vibration is dependent on up to four perceptual dimensions. These dimensions relate to energy in the 16 Hz 1/3 octave band (a(16Hz)), energy in the 32 Hz 1/3 octave band (a(32Hz)), the duration of the train passage (T-10dB), and the modulation frequency of the envelope of the signal (f(mod)). These perceptual dimensions are shown to be related to single figure Perceived Annoyance Ratings (A) by the following relationship: A = -0.40 + 4.57a(16HZ), + 3.18a(32Hz) + 0.02T(10dB) + 0.02f(mod). Finally, the single figure Perceived Annoyance Ratings are related to categorical ratings of annoyance via a logistic regression model. These findings confirm the hypothesis that the perception of complex vibration stimuli is multidimensional and can be described by a small number of perceptual dimensions.