dc.description.abstract | The physical properties of circum-aural hearing protectors, such as mass, clamping
force and cup volume, have an influence on the attenuation performance of
the device. This paper closely examines the physical and acoustic properties 39 of
hearing protectors readily available to all users. The results indicate that attenuation
increases with clamping force up to a limiting value of around 11 Newtons
above which expected increases in attenuation are very small for large increases
in clamping force. Likewise increasing the (newly introduced term) bulk of a
hearing protector (volume, mass and cup elements) increases the attenuation but,
as with clamping force a limit is reached where increased bulk increases discomfort
and wearing difficulty. | en_US |