Human Responses to Sound and Vibration

Learning Outcomes

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.
• 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).
• 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).

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

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

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• 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.
• Understand the principles of measuring, evaluating, and assessing both noise and vibration.

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.
• Assess the severity of noise and vibration to which people are exposed.
• Measure noise and vibration (both whole-body vibration and hand-transmitted 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

Formative assessment description

Summative

Summative assessment description

Referral

Referral assessment description

Repeat

Repeat assessment description

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External