The Effect of Wind Turbine Infrasound Emission on Subjectively Rated Activation Level

Abstract

The problem of low-frequency acoustic waves emitted by wind turbine farms has become a great challenge to acousticians in Europe for more than 20 years. In Poland wind farm industry is growing rapidly and generates questions about the inuence of such sounds on human organism. A short survey of previously published reports concerning subjectively perceived inuence of wind turbines on people living next to wind farms is given together with the results of the Thayer's test measuring the dierence in activation level before and after exposition on infrasound wave generated by a wind turbine. Statistically signicant increase of the High Activation Level representing a tension type arousal has been revealed.

Impact of infrasound and low frequency noise on human health and well-being. Part I: Review of experimental studies

“…Jedno z pierwszych badań eksperymentalnych dotyczących oddziaływania infradźwięków towarzyszących pracy turbin wiatrowych dotyczyło ich wpływu na nastrój [60]. Grupę 35 osób (w wieku 19-23 lat) eksponowano przez 20 min na odfiltrowany (>20 Hz) sygnał akustyczny o poziomie 92 dBLIN / 39 dBA, który zarejestrowano wcześniej w odległości 750 m od turbiny wiatrowej.…”

“…miary psychofizjologicznej, której można przypisać określenia takie jak: roztrzęsiony, pełen lęku, spięty, napięty. Nie stwierdzono natomiast istotnych statystycznie zmian w innych skalach aktywacji [60].…”

Technical Note. Optimization of Parameters for a Damped Oscillator Excited by a Sequence of Random Pulses

“…The Faculty develops the most up-to-date domains of mechanics including vibroacoustics which combine the problems of the theory of linear vibrations (Kasprzyk, 2011;Wiciak, Trojanowski, 2014), engineering dynamics, theoretitical acoustics (Snakowska, Jurkiewicz, 2010;Rdzanek et al, 2011), and technical acoustics (Piechowicz, 2011;Barański, Wszołek, 2013). Research is carried out in the areas connected with the problems of propagation of the noise produced by road traffic, wind power plants (Kasprzak et al, 2014;Wszołek et al, 2014), and industry, especially ducted systems with flow (Jurkiewicz et al, 2012). These studies are aimed at reducing vibroacoustic noise to a minimum and application of vibroacoustic signals in assessment and control of technological processes Sibielak et al, 2013;Konieczny et al, 2013).…”

Quietness in the Soundscape of the Białowieża National Park

“…Taking into account merely the most common source of noise which is the road traffic, analyzing the data included in the acoustic maps and measurements performed by the Chief Inspectorate of the Environmental Protection in the year 2013 [2] in Poland we can state that 66% of the examined roads are characterized by the level of noise emission above 65 dB L AeqD in daytime, and on 78% of roads the noise level exceeds 56 dB L AeqN during night time. Additionally, the sonic environment includes also the noise generated by industry [3][4][5], aircraft, wind turbines [6,7], railways, craft services, farms, playgrounds, municipal facilities, renovations, and household appliances [8]. What is more, the presence of noise from several sources makes segregation of sounds by the ear difficult [9].…”