Development of tools and methods for better evaluating and improving workers’ personal hearing protection Abstract At the present time, approximately half a million Québec workers are exposed daily to noise levels capable of causing hearing problems, and some of them are dealing with the consequences of occupational deafness. While the elimination of noise at source is the most effective solution, it is sometimes impossible to do it, and the use of personal means of hearing protection is then necessary.However, there are problems associated with the wearing of hearing protectors; they can mainly cause communication difficulties, and can be a risk cofactor for occupational accidents. Because it is difficult to choose and design an adapted hearing protector, they may not properly protect the user and may represent a risk to his hearing health. Due to the discomfort they cause, the recommended wearing time to limit noise exposure is not always respected. Finally, protector design is often based on empiricism without the optimization of performance and comfort.The primary objective of this study is to develop tools and methods of measurement in order to better evaluate and improve the acoustical performances of hearing protectors, while integrating certain parameters that have an impact on comfort. The study includes the three types of protectors commonly used: ear muffs, ear plugs, and the dual protection consisting of the simultaneous use of ear muffs and ear plugs. Produced Under this Project Scientific Reports Développement d’outils et de méthodes pour mieux évaluer et améliorer la protection auditive individuelle des travailleurs Research Report: R-901 Video Reports and Conferences Development of tools and methods for better evaluating and improving workers’ personal hearing protection Conference: CF-227 Scientific Publications Influence of source location, subjects and HPD size on the sound field around earmuffsLe Cocq C., Hugues Nélisse, Boutin J., Voix J., Laville F.Source : in Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada, (October 12-14, 2011, Québec, Canada). Canadian Acoustics / Acoustique canadienne, vol. 39, no 3, 2011, p. 98-99Development of an equivalent solid model to predict the vibroacoustic behavior of eamuff cushionsBoyer S., Franck Sgard, Laville F., Hamdi M. A.Source : in Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada, (October 12-14, 2011, Québec, Canada). Canadian Acoustics / Acoustique canadienne, vol. 39, no 3, 2011, p. 96-97Development of a 3D finite element model of the human external ear for simulation of the auditory occlusion effectBrummund M., Petit Y., Franck Sgard, Laville F.Source : in Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada, (October 12-14, 2011, Québec, Canada). Canadian Acoustics / Acoustique canadienne, vol. 39, no 3, 2011, p. 94-95Development of a simplified axi-symmetric finite element model of the auditory canal occluded by an earplug: variability of the attenuation as a function of the input parametersViallet G., Franck Sgard, Laville F.Source : in Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada, (October 12-14, 2011, Québec, Canada). Canadian Acoustics / Acoustique canadienne, vol. 39, no 3, 2011, p. 100-101A simplified axi-symmetric finite element model of the human outer ear to determine the earplug induced auditory occusion effectBrummund M., Franck Sgard, Petit Y., Laville F.Source : in 162nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, (162nd : October 31-November 4, 2011 : San Diego, USA). Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 130, no 4, 2011, p. 2469Comparison of a 3 dimension model versus a 2 dimension-axisymmetric finite element model of an occluded ear canal Viallet G., Franck Sgard, Laville F.Source : in 162nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, (162nd : October 31-November 4, 2011 : San Diego, USA). Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 130, no 4, 2011, p. 2518Estimation of noise levels and HPD attenuation in the workplace using microphones located in the vicinity of the earHugues Nélisse, Le Cocq C., Boutin J., Laville F., Voix J.Source : in Semaine canadienne d'acoustique, (10-12 octobre, 2012 : Banff, Canada), 2012Acoustic finite element modeling of hearing protection devicesFranck Sgard, Brummund M., Viallet G., Boyer S., Petit Y., Laville F., Boutin J.Source : in InterNoise 2012 (41th : August 19-22, 2012 : New York, USA), 2012, 12 pOn the influence of the material properties of the external ear on occlusion effect simulationsBrummund M., Franck Sgard, Petit Y., Laville F.Source : in Semaine canadienne d'acoustique / CAA, (10-12 octobre, 2012 : Banff, Canada), 2012Estimation of noise exposure level for subjects wearing hearing protector devicesLe Cocq C., Hugues Nélisse, Boutin J. , Voix J., Laville F.Source : in 21st International Congress on Acoustics : Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, (21st : June 2-7, 2013 : Montréal, Canada), 2013, vol. 19, no 1, 8 pComparison of subjective and objective methods for the measurements of hearing protector devices attenuation and occlusion effectHugues Nélisse, Le Cocq C., Boutin J. , Voix J., Laville F.Source : in 21st International Congress on Acoustics : Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, (21st : June 2-7, 2013 : Montréal, Canada), 2013, vol. 19, no 1, 7 pAxisymmetric versus three-dimensional finite element models for predicting the attenuation of earplugs in rigid walled ear canalsViallet G., Franck Sgard, Laville F., Boutin J. Source : Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 134, no 6, 2013, p. 4470-4480Sound transfer path analysis to model the vibroacoustic behaviour of a commercial earmuffBoyer S., Franck Sgard, Laville F.Source : in 21st International Congress on Acoustics : Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, (21st : June 2-7, 2013 : Montréal, Canada), 2013, vol. 19, no 1, 9 pImplementation of a simplified, artificial external ear test fixture for measurement of the earplug induced auditory occlusionBrummond M., Franck Sgard, Petit Y., Laville F., Boutin J. Source : in 21st International Congress on Acoustics : Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, (21st : June 2-7, 2013 : Montréal, Canada), 2013, vol. 19, no 1, 7 pInfluence of the external ear tissue domains on the sound attenuation of an earplug predicted by a finite element modelViallet G., Franck Sgard, Laville F.Source : in 21st International Congress on Acoustics : Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, (21st : June 2-7, 2013 : Montréal, Canada), 2013, vol. 19, no 1, 8 pThree-dimensional finite element modeling of the human external ear: simulation study of the bone conduction occlusion effectBrummund M. K., Franck Sgard, Petit Y., Laville F.Source : Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 135, no 3, 2014, p. 1433-1444Objective assessment of the sound paths through earmuff componentsBoyer S., Doutres O., Franck Sgard, Laville F., Boutin J. Source : Applied Acoustics, vol. 83, 2014, p. 76-85A finite element model to predict the sound attenuation of earplugs in an acoustical test fixtureViallet G., Franck Sgard, Laville F., Boutin J. Source : The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 136, no 3, 2014, p. 1269-1280Prediction of airborne and structure borne sound transmission through hearing protectors using FEMFranck Sgard, Brummond M., Viallet G., Boyer S., Doutres O., Hugues Nélisse, Laville F., Petit Y., Boutin J. Source : in Improving the World through Noise Control : International congress on Noise Control Engineering / InterNoise 2014 (43rd : November 16-19, 2014 : Melbourne, Australia), 2014, 9 pSystematic evaluation of the relationship between physical and psychoacoustical measurements of hearing protectors’ attenuationHugues Nélisse, Le Cocq C., Boutin J. , Laville F., Voix J.Source : (2015). Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 12(12), 829-844. doi: 10.1080/15459624.2015.1053893Investigation of the variability in earplugs sound attenuation measurements using a finite element modelViallet G., Franck Sgard, Laville F., Hugues NélisseSource : (2015). Applied Acoustics, 89, 333-344. doi: 10.1016/j.apacoust.2014.10.007Using finite element modeling to predict the effect of ear canal microphone positioning on the sound attenuation of hearing protectorsFranck Sgard, Viallet G., Hugues NélisseSource : Proceeding of 22nd International Congress on Sound and Vibration 2015 (ICSV 22), Florence, Italy, 2015, vol. 4 (p. 3360-3368).A finite element model to improve noise reduction based attenuation measurement of earmuffs in a directional sound fieldGaudreau M.-A., Franck Sgard, Laville F., Hugues NélisseSource : (2017). Applied Acoustics, 119, 66-77. doi: 10.1016/j.apacoust.2016.12.003An axisymmetric finite element model to study the earplug contribution to the bone conduction occlusion effectBrummund M.-K., Franck Sgard, Petit Y., Laville F., Hugues NélisseSource : (2015). Acta Acustica united with Acustica, 101(4), 775-788.Using finite–element modeling to predict the effect of sound incidence on the noise reduction based attenuation of earmuffsFranck Sgard, Gaudreau M.-A., Hugues NélisseSource : Proceeding of 22nd International Congress on Acoustics, Buenos-Aires, Argentina, 2016 (p. 1-10). Retrieved from http://www.ica2016.org.ar/ica2016proceedings/ica2016/ICA2016-0098.pdfDéveloppement d'outils et de méthodes pour mieux évaluer et améliorer la protection auditive individuelle des travailleursFranck Sgard, Hugues NélisseSource : Communication présentée au Rendez-vous de la science de l'IRSST, Montréal, QC.Measurement of earplugs insertion loss using a classical impedance tubeDoutres O., Franck Sgard, Sgard G.Source : Communication présentée à 44th International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering (Internoise 2015): Implementing Noise Control Technology, San Francisco, CA, 2015 (p. 4773-4784).Numerical study of the broadband vibro-acoustic response of an earmuffCarillo K., Franck Sgard, Doutres O.Source : (2018). Applied Acoustics, 134, 25-33. doi: 10.1016/j.apacoust.2017.12.025A finite–element model to predict incidence dependent and diffuse field noise reduction based attenuation of earmuffsFranck Sgard, Hugues Nélisse, Benacchio S., Doutres O., Padois T., Gaudreau M.-A.Source : Communication présentée à la24th International Congress on Sound and Vibration (ICSV24) , London, Angleterre, 2017 (p. 1-8).Numerical prediction of the broadband sound attenuation of a commercial earmuff: Impact of the cushion modelingCarillo K., Franck Sgard, Doutres O.Source : Communication présentée à Acoustics'17: Joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the European Acoustics Association, Boston, MA, 2017 (p. 3733). The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. doi: 10.1121/1.4988200Simulation numérique de l’atténuation sonore d’un protecteur auditif de type casque anti-bruitCarillo K., Doutres O., Franck SgardSource : Communication présentée au39e Congrès de l’AQHSST : prévenir au quotidien, nouveaux enjeux, nouveaux défis, Victoriaville, QC. [Affiche].Low frequency finite element models of the acoustical behavior of earmuffsBoyer S., Doutres O., Franck Sgard, Laville F., Boutin J. Source : (2015). Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 137(5), 2602-2613.Systematic evaluation of the relationship between subjective and objective measurement methods of hearing protector devices attenuationHugues Nélisse, Le Cocq C., Boutin J. , Voix J., Laville F.Source : C. Glorieux (dir), Communication présentée à Proceedings of EuroNoise 2015, Maastricht, Pays-Bas, 2015 (p. 1973-1978). Other Project(s) You May be Interested in Design of Artificial Ears for the Purpose of Studying Noise Mitigation and the Occlusion Effect of Ear Plugs Using MRI ImagingDevelopment of a method for measuring effective intra-aural noise exposure for use in the workplaceDevelopment of a Voice-based Method for Objective Occlusion Effect Measurement Development of a range of comfort indices for earplugs to improve hearing protection for workers Développement d'un appareil auditif protecteur dédié à la recherche sur les problèmes liés aux travailleurs malentendants oeuvrant en milieu de travail bruyant Additional Information Type: Project Number: 0099-7630 Status: Completed Year of completion: 2015 Research Field: Mechanical and Physical Risk Prevention Team: Franck Sgard (IRSST)Hugues Nélisse (IRSST)Frédéric Laville (École de technologie supérieure)Yvan Petit (École de technologie supérieure)Jérémie Voix (École de technologie supérieure)Cécile Le Cocq (École de technologie supérieure)Mike Stinson (Conseil national de recherches Canada)Gilles Daigle (Conseil national de recherches Canada)Jérôme Boutin (IRSST)