One-Third Octave Band Spectral Characteristics and Consumers' Evaluation for Sound of Blouse Fabrics

Abstract

Ten woven fabrics for lady's blouse including natural silk and synthetic ones were selected and the objective sound characteristics including level pressure of total sound (LPT_oct), level range (ΔL_oct), frequency difference (Δf_oct), and variance of levels (VL_oct) were obtained from one-third octave band spectra of each rubbing sound of the fabrics. Consumers' subjective sensation (softness, loudness, sharpness, clearness, roughness, highness, and pleasantness) was rated by free modulus magnitude estimation (FMME). Silk and synthetic fabrics showed similar shapes of octave band spectra. Silk fabrics were found as sounding much more pleasant than synthetic ones. In relationship between objective measurements and subjective sensation, subjective clearness for silk fabrics was explained significantly by ΔL_oct and VL_oct, whereas subjective softness was significantly described by the parameters for synthetic ones.