Human Responses to Sound and Vibration

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Understand the principles of measuring, evaluating, and assessing both noise and vibration.
• Read, understand, and interpret the literature relating to noise and vibration effects upon people
• Recognise and select appropriate techniques for the investigation of noise and vibration effects.
• Apply current standards, limits, and regulations for both noise and vibration.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Assess risk based on technical knowledge and legal requirements.
• Access and understand British, European, and International standards.
• Discuss noise and vibration issues in a multi-disciplinary environment.
• Access and understand European Union Directives.
• Deal with logarithmic quantities, SI units, and reference values.
• Contribute confidently and appropriately to discussions on similar topics.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Understand the principal methods of measuring and evaluating noise and vibration with respect to human responses.
• Understand the principal responses to whole-body vibration (i.e., perception, comfort, motion sickness, performance, and health) and hand-transmitted vibration (i.e., the hand-arm vibration syndrome, including vibration-induced white finger).
• Recognise and select appropriate standards, recommendations, or regulations that apply to particular environments (e.g., domestic, commercial, transport, industrial).
• Understand the principal responses to noise (i.e., perception, loudness, annoyance, speech interference, noise-induced hearing loss).

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Recognise means of preventing, or minimising, undesirable effects of noise and vibration on people.
• Measure noise and vibration (both whole-body vibration and hand-transmitted vibration) to which people are exposed.
• Assess the severity of noise and vibration to which people are exposed.
• Evaluate noise and vibration to which people are exposed.

Sound

• The human auditory system.
• Noise and health Hearing damage risk.
• Non-auditory health risks, vegetative responses.
• Disturbance of speech communication Prediction.
• Standards.
• Annoyance at home and in other environments.
• Sleep disturbance.
• Planning and noise.

Vibration

• Principles of the measurement and evaluation of human vibration exposures.
• Standards and Directives for whole-body vibration and hand-transmitted vibration.
• Health effects of whole-body vibration.
• Effects of whole-body vibration on activities.
• Discomfort produced by whole-body vibration.
• Vibration thresholds.
• Building vibration.
• Biodynamics (body transmissibility, apparent mass, models).
• Seating dynamics (transmissibility, SEAT value, models).
• Health effects of hand-transmitted vibration, their diagnosis, and prevention.
• Measurement, evaluation, and assessment of the vibration of powered hand-held tools.
• Causes of motion sickness in marine, land and air transport.

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures on Sound and lectures on Vibration.

Students join the module with widely varying experience / knowledge of human responses to noise and vibration, so in-class questions and discussion is expected.

Laboratory demonstrations of human responses to whole-body vibration and hand-transmitted vibration.

Students are expected to devote time to reading supporting texts to supplement material introduced during lecture periods.

Coursework assignments allow students to build upon lecture material.

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

Guidelines for Community Noise.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External