Earmuff comfort

Hearing protectors must be efficient both in terms of noise attenuation and in comfortability of wearing. The purpose of this paper is to review publications related to earmuff comfort, most of which are based on the measurement of the total headband force and subjective evaluation using questionnaires. Most of the published results show a weak correlation between total headband force and subjective evaluation. This paper presents new quantitative indices based on comfort parameters, mainly measurements of the contact pressure distribution between the earmuff cushions or headphones and the circumaural flesh of the human head. The comfort parameters were investigated and equations were developed to calculate comfort indices. The calculated indices are correlated with subjective evaluations. Measurement results show good correlation with subjective evaluation.