Application of Specific Loudness in Active Noise Control inside Passenger Car

Loudness which is one of the psycho-acoustic metrics is an important parameter in the model of sound quality objective evaluation. In this paper, based on two standards, two computational procedures of loudness were programmed and verified respectively, and these verified results showed that the two computational procedures are stable and reliable. Based on these characteristics of specific loudness curve, control strategy which selectively attenuates the peak values of specific loudness is proposed to solve the problem of active noise control inside vehicle. A computer simulation with this strategy is conducted and the changes of specific loudness and loudness before and after active noise control are analyzed. The results indicate that it is significant to reduce the peak values of specific loudness by using this control strategy, and then the reduction in loudness of noise is up to 1.5 sones.