풍력발전기 소음의 진폭변조에 대한 예측 및 인지 가능성 고찰

Perception of amplitude-modulated noise from wind turbines

Wind turbine noise is generally lower than that from other environmental noise sources such as road and railway noise. Nevertheless, some residents living more than 1km away from wind turbines have claimed that they suffer sleep disturbance due to wind turbine noise. Several researchers have maintained that residents near a wind farm may perceive large amplitude modulation of wind turbine noise at night, and this amplitude modulation is the main cause of the noise annoyance. However, to date only few studies exist on the prediction of the amplitude modulation of wind turbine noise. Thus, this study predicts amplitude modulated noise generated from a generic 2.5MW wind turbine. Semi-empirical noise models are employed to predict the modulation depth and the overall sound pressure level of the wind turbine noise. The result shows that the amplitude modulation is observed regardless of atmospheric stability, but the modulation depth in a stable atmosphere is 1~3dB higher than that in an unstable atmosphere near the plane of rotation where the blades move downward. Moreover, using the result of the noise prediction, this study estimates the maximum perceptible distance of the wind turbine noise cause by amplitude modulation. The result indicates that the wind turbine noise can be perceived at a distance of up to 1600m in the range of about 30~60 degree from the on axis in a extremely low background noise environment.