Sensitivity modeling of selected road transport noise parameters

Metrological identification of environmental pollution with noise is carried out in the decibel state space, in the range of values from 0 dB to 130 dB. It includes analyses of noise levels related to the psychoacoustic Weber-Fechner law. This law describes the conditions of human perception of acoustic disturbances with decibel numbers. Their values are determined by the relation of 10 logarithms from the ratio of acoustic disturbance energy to the pressure energy associated with the threshold of their perception by humans. The emerging question is the problem of interpreting the obtained measurement results in different ranges of the decibel scale. The paper analyses the problem of whether the representation of human perception of acoustic disturbances in different ranges of the decibel scale has an invariable value. The authors linked the answers to such questions by analyzing the proposed models of sensitivity coefficients of selected noise descriptors. Their values were determined by relating the number of decibels resulting from each calculation to an input quantity characterizing the acoustic disturbance. The results of the analyses were linked with the calculus proper to the algebra of Euclidean numbers. It was demonstrated that the sensitivity characteristic in the decibel scale is strongly dependent on the adopted calculus of modelling the quantity under consideration and on the estimates of the input variable characterizing the acoustic disturbance. In particular, attention was drawn to nonlinearity in the representation of acoustic disturbances in their decibel values in the scale range [0 dB, 10 dB], which occurs during identification calculations in the Euclidean measurement space. The article’s analysis results indicate the need to verify the current procedures for identifying environmental acoustic threats.