Aircraft noise annoyance during landings can be quantified by means of noise annoyance metrics. Knowledge of their behaviour is therefore fundamental when assessing noise around airports. Aircraft most common noise certification metrics used nowadays were developed in the 1960s and, since then, the dimension of the fan fitted in turbofan engines has grown continuously. The importance of the Tonality sound component was recently highlighted in a study performed on spinning fans. This research aimed to analyse whether the inclusion of the tonality in aircraft noise annoyance quantification methods produces results differing from the old metrics. To research this, sound data from thirteen aircraft landings at Schiphol Airport have been recorded. Standard corrections have then been applied when necessary and noise information at the aircraft was obtained. Finally, in order to investigate the contribution of the tonality, three well-established metrics (A weighted Sound Pressure Level, Effective Perceived Noise Level and Psychoacoustic Annoyance) for the quantification of the sound annoyance were compared to a new metric, developed in this work, namely Psychoacoustic Annoyance with Tonality.
It was observed that the four metrics agreed on which was the most annoying aircraft, but that they did differ on which ones were the least annoying. Among the old metrics, only the Effective Perceived Noise Level produced an aircraft noise annoyance ranking similar to the one yielded by the new metric. Therefore, the difference in aircraft ranking resulting from including tonality suggests that this noise component could play an important role in the assessment of modern aircraft noise annoyance.