Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
PREFERRED NOISE CRITERIA (PNC) CURVES
This methodology was developed by Beranek et al. (1971) (Figure 13.6). The curves are
based on office workers' subjective ratings of noise. The ratings were given during
several experiments done to investigate which frequencies in the noise were particularly
disturbing to speech communication. The PNC curves in Figure 13.6 represent equal-
sensitivity (iso-sensitivity) curves to noise of different frequencies.
FIGURE 13.6
Preferred noise criteria
(PNC) curves are iso-sensitivity curves
for noise of different frequencies (the
number after PNC is the sound
pressure in decibels at 1000 Hz). To
evaluate a noisy environment, octave-
