Characterisation of wind farm infrasound and low-frequency noise

Abstract

This paper seeks to characterise infrasound and low-frequency noise (ILFN) from a wind farm, which contains distinct tonal components with distinguishable blade-pass frequency and higher harmonics. Acoustic measurements were conducted at dwellings in the vicinity of the wind farm and meteorological measurements were taken at the wind farm location and dwellings. Wind farm ILFN was measured frequently under stable and very stable atmospheric conditions and was also found to be dependent on the time of year. For noise character assessment, wind farm ILFN was compared with several hearing thresholds and also with the spectra obtained when the wind farm was not operating. Wind farm ILFN was found to exceed the audibility threshold at distances up to 4 km from the wind farm and to undergo large variations in magnitude with time.