Investigation of the time dependent nature of infrasound measured near a wind farm

It is well-known that wind farm noise is dominated by low-frequency energy at large distances from the wind farm, where the high frequency noise has been more attenuated than low-frequency noise. It has also been found that wind farm noise is highly variable with time due to the influence of atmospheric factors such as atmospheric turbulence, wake turbulence from upstream turbines and wind shear, as well as effects that can be attributed to blade rotation. Nevertheless, many standards that are used to determine wind farm compliance are based on overall A-weighted levels which have been averaged over a period of time. Therefore the aim of the work described in this paper is to investigate the time dependent nature of unweighted wind farm noise and its perceptibility, with a focus on infrasound. Measurements were carried out during shutdown and operational conditions and results show that wind farm infrasound could be detectable by the human ear although not perceived as sound.