This study introduces the acoustic characteristics of wind noise generated from hearing aids exposed to airflow and examines the mechanism of wind noise generation. In recent years, hearing aids and earphones with noise cancelling functions have become popular. When subjected to airflow, these devices generate wind noise. The noise makes us uncomfortable and interferes with our daily life. However, the detailed effects of wind noise due to flow velocity and direction have not been clarified. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify these characteristics, examine the mechanism of wind noise generation, and establish methods to reduce the noise. The analytical model used in this study is a combination of a hearing aid and a head model, which reproduces the case of a person wearing a hearing aid in the ear. In this study, numerical simulations and wind tunnel experiments of wind noise at low flow velocities were conducted, and the validity of the simulation results was also verified. The experimental and simulation results revealed that the noise level of wind noise increases with higher airflow velocity. Furthermore, the excited frequency band changes depending on the velocity, and the noise level decreases at specific airflow angles.
Kobanawa et al. (Wed,) studied this question.