Abstract
The development of wind turbines that are acoustically acceptable to the community requires an understanding of the human perception of and response to wind turbine noise and any noise-induced building vibrations resulting from turbine operation. This paper discusses a program to develop noise standards for wind turbines, a program that minimizes annoyance and that can be used in design specifications. The approach consisted of presenting wind turbine noise stimuli to test subjects in a laboratory listening chamber. The responses of subjects were recorded for a range of stimuli that encompassed the design, operating conditions, and ambient noise levels of current and future installations. Results to date established the threshold of detectability for a range of impulsive stimuli of the type associated with blade/tower-wake interactions. The thrust of the program was to develop the psycho- physical functions relating human response to each of the wind turbine noise components, such as "thumping" and "swishing." The general use of these psycho-physical relationships was intended to guide the designer/operator in pinpointing the exact frequency components and, hence, source mechanisms that cause problems with wind turbine operations.