Very high level impulse noises and hearing protection

Invited paper

Pascal Hamery

ISL - APC

Wednesday 3 june, 2015, 09:40 - 10:00

0.4 Brussels (189)

Abstract:
Although the European noise regulation seems to be well adapted to the industrial context, and in the military context problems concerning exposure to continuous noise may be resolved by using better performing Hearing Protection Devices (HPDs), problems subsist for impulse noise. In certain countries (e.g. France) the European noise regulation has been implemented in a way that, for weapon noise, the requirement regulation cannot be met with existing HPDs. But, if double hearing protection is used, the soldier will be isolated from his acoustic environment. The consequences are that more accidents during training on the firing range will occur and/or the use of HPDs will be refused during combat. This is the reason why it is important to adapt the effective regulations for specificity of military noises. In the same time, it is necessary to characterize the HPD’s attenuation for impulsive noise exposure. This presentation will present the problems that arise due to the present implementation of the European recommendation (2003/10/EC) in France. It will also show how HPDs are tested at the ISL with impulse noise at very high peak pressure levels. These procedures allow to characterize the nonlinear behavior of the HPDs at peak pressure levels which will be experienced during training and combat. A reflection concerning a new metric describing the nonlinear behavior of HPDs in impuse noise will be discussed.

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