A study of sound intensity control for active noise barriers

Active noise control systems have been applied to increase the insertion loss of noise barriers where the squared sound pressure or the total acoustic energy density is used as the cost function in previous works. The absolute value of the mean active sound intensity is chosen as the cost function to obtain extra sound insertion loss in the dark area of a hybrid active noise barrier system in this note. The strategy of minimizing the near-field sound intensity at discrete locations along the edge of the passive barrier is shown to be able to provide better far-field noise reduction than that of minimizing the squared sound pressure control. Both numerical simulations and off-line experiments are carried out with a three-channel demonstration system, where the locations of the secondary sources and the error sensors are optimized and comparisons are made between the extra sound pressure attenuation of the sound intensity control and that of the squared sound pressure control.     

复杂声学环境中人耳附近空间有源降噪研究综述

复杂声学环境中人耳附近空间降噪是有源噪声控制研究的重要课题,目前采用的主要方法为有源降噪头靠(AHR)和虚拟声屏障(VSB).本文简述AHR与VSB的发展历史和研究现状,介绍其物理原理和设计方法,评述其在实际应用中的优缺点,讨论了目前存在的问题与未来相关的研究方向.已有理论、数值仿真和实验研究验证了相关技术在人耳附近空间产生静区的可行性. AHR系统需要较少控制源,系统相对简单易实现,但静区范围较小,结合虚拟传声器技术和人头跟踪技术后可实现随人头移动的静区,降噪频率可达中高频; VSB产生的静区范围较大,但控制源个数较多,系统复杂和成本高,可通过代价函数和控制源优化,以及主被动混合控制技术来提高有效降噪频率范围和减少控制源个数.     

传声器阵列对高频弱声源的声成像识别方法

研究了传声器阵列对高频弱声源的识别定位方法。该方法根据高频声源的指向性和阵列探测特性等特点,提出了利用信噪比加权方法提高有效阵元对声成像的贡献,根据信噪比的大小对每个阵元添加不同的权值,可以显著提高传声器阵列对高频弱声源的声像清晰度。仿真分析了阵元加权和不加权两种方法对阵列声成像结果的影响,以某型号笔记本电脑电路板噪声为对象进行的实验表明,在阵列测量中充分利用有效阵元信号可以实现对声压级低达10~20dB的微弱噪声源的精确测量。      

Error sensor location optimization for active soft edge noise barrier

Active control is used to improve the performance of noise barrier at low-frequency range and the excess insertion loss due to the active control system is influenced by the positions of the error sensors. The positional optimization for the error sensors in an active soft edge noise barrier was investigated. Both numerical simulations and experiments show that there is an optimum in the distance between the secondary sources and the error sensors, and that the error sensors should be placed above the secondary sources.     

基于超指向性多极子矢量阵的水下低频声源方位估计方法研究

针对水下低频声源的方位估计问题,基于基元紧密排列的二维矢量阵,建立了一种超指向性波束形成方法.根据矢量基元差分运算构建各阶多极子模型,获得了几乎与频率无关的模态函数,并经加权计算可在低频条件下实现超指向性波束,以解决阵列孔径对波束性能的限制.同时,结合输出信噪比最大准则所得波束,分析了超指向性波束形成算法的稳定性与波导的影响程度,探索模态阶数与阵列参数的选取原则.通过阵列性能的仿真计算与实际阵列的测量数据表明,该算法可在小尺寸阵列孔径下获得良好的阵列波束,兼具了水下线型超指向性阵和环形超指向性阵的优点,可有效实现水下低频声源的水平方位估计;且波束性能可通过调节模态阶数与基元间距以达到最佳,并受水下声波导多途与频散效应影响有限.     

Optimum array design to maximize Fisher information for bearing estimation

Source bearing estimation is a common application of linear sensor arrays. The Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) sets a lower bound on the achievable mean square error (MSE) of any unbiased bearing estimate. In the spatially white noise case, the CRB is minimized by placing half of the sensors at each end of the array. However, many realistic ocean environments have a mixture of both white noise and spatially correlated noise. In shallow water environments, the correlated ambient noise can be modeled as cylindrically isotropic. This research designs a fixed aperture linear array to maximize the bearing Fisher information (FI) under these noise conditions. The FI is the inverse of the CRB, so maximizing the FI minimizes the CRB. The elements of the optimum array are located closer to the array ends than uniform spacing, but are not as extreme as in the white noise case. The optimum array results from a trade off between maximizing the array bearing sensitivity and minimizing output noise power variation over the bearing. Depending on the source bearing, the resulting improvement in MSE performance of the optimized array over a uniform array is equivalent to a gain of 2-5 dB in input signal-to-noise ratio.     

Virtual sensors for active noise control in acoustic-structural coupled enclosures using structural sensing: part II--Optimization of structural sensor placement

The work proposed an optimization approach for structural sensor placement to improve the performance of vibro-acoustic virtual sensor for active noise control applications. The vibro-acoustic virtual sensor was designed to estimate the interior sound pressure of an acoustic-structural coupled enclosure using structural sensors. A spectral-spatial performance metric was proposed, which was used to quantify the averaged structural sensor output energy of a vibro-acoustic system excited by a spatially varying point source. It was shown that (i) the overall virtual sensing error energy was contributed additively by the modal virtual sensing error and the measurement noise energy; (ii) each of the modal virtual sensing error system was contributed by both the modal observability levels for the structural sensing and the target acoustic virtual sensing; and further (iii) the strength of each modal observability level was influenced by the modal coupling and resonance frequencies of the associated uncoupled structural/cavity modes. An optimal design of structural sensor placement was proposed to achieve sufficiently high modal observability levels for certain important panel- and cavity-controlled modes. Numerical analysis on a panel-cavity system demonstrated the importance of structural sensor placement on virtual sensing and active noise control performance, particularly for cavity-controlled modes.     

Reduction of radiated exterior noise from the flexible vibrating plate of a rectangular enclosure using multi-channel active control

This study attempted to control the radiated exterior noise from a rectangular enclosure in which an internal plate vibrates by acoustic excitation and noise is thus radiated from that plate. Multi-channel active control was applied to reduce the vibration and external radiation of this enclosed plate. A piezoelectric ceramic was used as a distributed actuator for multiple mode control of the vibration and radiated noise in the acoustically excited plate. To maximize the effective control, an approach was proposed for attachment the piezoelectric actuator in the optimal location. The plate and internal acoustic space in the enclosure are coupled with each other. This will change dominant frequency characteristics of the plate and, thus, those of the externally radiated noise. Active noise control was accomplished using an accelerometer attached to the plate and a microphone placed adjacent to that plate as an error sensor under acoustic excitation of sine wave and white noise. It was found that the control of radiated external radiation noise requires a microphone as an error sensor, a sound pressure sensor due to vibration of the plate, differences in the dominant frequency of externally radiated noise, and complex vibration modes of the plate.     

Acoustic array tracking performance under moderately complex environmental conditions

The direction-of-arrival (DOA) tracking performance of microphone arrays having aperture sizes ranging from 0.3 to 34 m is examined for an experiment involving a vehicle traversing a moderately complex terrain. A segment of the vehicle’s path was obscured behind a small, 6.7-m high, vegetated hill. The combination of the hill and upwind propagation created an acoustic shadow during this segment. DOA tracks were estimated with a minimum-variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamformer operating in two frequency bands: 25-60 Hz and 60-105 Hz. In the lower frequency band, array sizes between 1 and 8 m gave the best results, with DOA errors between 2° and 5°. Furthermore, in this band shadowing from the hill and wind refraction had a minimal affect on DOA error. In the higher frequency band, the acoustic shadow zone produced a distinct interval of high DOA error, with the 8-m array giving the best overall performance. Modeling of the beamforming process shows that high DOA errors corresponded to MVDR wavenumber patterns that are degraded by distortions to the propagating wavefronts. Our experimental results indicate that small acoustic arrays with apertures less than 0.3 m, operating at frequencies above 100 Hz, should be considered line of sight sensors. Given the moderate complexity of the test conditions, it is anticipated that the observed effects are likely to be present in most attempts to localize outdoor sound sources.     

Active noise control in a free field with virtual sensors

The zone of local control around a "virtual energy density sensor" is compared with that offered by an actual energy density sensor, a single microphone, and a virtual microphone. Intended as an introduction to the concept of forward difference prediction and a precursor to evaluating the virtual sensor control algorithms in damped enclosures, this paper investigates an idealized scenario of a single primary sound source in a free-field environment. An analytical model is used to predict the performance of the virtual error sensors and compare their control performance with their physical counterparts. The model is then experimentally validated. The model shows that in general the virtual energy density sensor outperforms the actual energy density sensor, the actual microphone, and the virtual microphone in terms of centering a practically sized zone of local control around an observer who is remotely located from any physical sensors. However, in practice, the virtual sensor algorithms are shown to be sensitive (by varying degrees) to short wavelength spatial pressure variations of the primary and secondary sound fields.     

Coherent acoustic communication in a tidal estuary with busy shipping traffic

High-rate acoustic communication experiments were conducted in a dynamic estuarine environment. Two current profilers deployed in a shipping lane were interfaced with acoustic modems, which modulated and transmitted the sensor readings every 200 s over a period of four days. QPSK modulation was employed at a raw data rate of 8 kbits on a 12-kHz carrier. Two 16-element hydrophone arrays, one horizontal and one vertical, were deployed near the shore. A multichannel decision-feedback equalizer was used to demodulate the modem signals received on both arrays. Long-term statistical analysis reveals the effects of the tidal cycle, subsea unit location, attenuation by the wake of passing vessels, and high levels of ship-generated noise on the fidelity of the communication links. The use of receiver arrays enables vast improvement in the overall reliability of data delivery compared with a single-receiver system, with performance depending strongly on array orientation. The vertical array offers the best performance overall, although the horizontal array proves more robust against shipping noise. Spatial coherence estimates, variation of array aperture, and inspection of array angular responses point to adaptive beamforming and coherent combining as the chief mechanisms of array gain.     

An active noise barrier with unidirectional secondary sources

An active noise barrier with unidirectional secondary sources is investigated in this paper, where the unidirectional secondary source consists of two closely located loudspeakers with pre-adjusted phase difference. The secondary sound field of the unidirectional sources is adjusted to maximally match the primary sound field in the shadow zone behind the barrier. It is shown both numerically and experimentally that the noise reduction performance of the active noise barrier can be improved remarkably by replacing monopoles with the unidirectional sources. The mechanism for the improvement is also investigated.     

Array gain for a conformal acoustic vector sensor array:An experimental study

An acoustic vector sensor can measure the components of particle velocity and the acoustic pressure at the same point simultaneously, which provides a larger array gain against the ambient noise and a higher angular resolution than the omnidirectional pressure sensor. This paper presents an experimental study of array gain for a conformal acoustic vector sensor array in a practical environment. First, the manifold vector is calculated using the real measured data so that the effects of array mismatches can be minimized. Second, an optimal beamformer with a specific spatial response on the basis of the stable directivity of the ambient noise is designed, which can effectively suppress the ambient noise.Experimental results show that this beamformer for the conformal acoustic vector sensor array provides good signal-tonoise ratio enhancement and is more advantageous than the delay-and-sum and minimum variance distortionless response beamformers.     

The design of synthesized structural acoustic sensors for active control of interior noise with experimental validation

In this paper, the feasibility of using synthesized structural acoustic sensors (SSAS) for active noise control inside irregularly shaped enclosures is investigated. A SSAS consists of a cluster of inter-connected discrete PVDF elements, located on the surface of a vibrating structure enclosing a sound field. An optimal design ensures the sensor output to be directly related to the acoustical potential energy inside the enclosure. Hence, synthesized structural acoustic sensors can provide error signals for an active noise control system, and the use of microphones inside the enclosure can be avoided. A cylindrical shell with a floor partition, which can be used to model an aircraft cabin, is used as a test case. PZT actuators are used as control actuators. Both SISO (single input and single output) and MIMO (multi-input and multi-output) control systems are optimally designed using Genetic Algorithms and implemented with a Filtered-X Feedforward LMS (least-mean-square) controller. Their control performances are evaluated with different types of disturbances. To show the effectiveness of the optimal design approach, some non-optimal control systems are also tested and compared with the optimal one. It is shown that with optimally designed SSAS, an active structural acoustic control system can effectively reduce noise inside the enclosures without using any acoustic transducers.     

声矢量圆阵宽带相干目标MVDR方位估计*

针对宽带相干目标的远程探测问题，本文提出一种基于声压振速联合处理和矢量重构的声矢量圆阵MVDR波束形成方法。该方法利用相位模态变换技术，将声矢量圆阵变换为与信号频率无关的虚拟线阵，并构建虚拟线阵声压与组合振速的互协方差矩阵，利用声压与振速各分量间的空间相关性有效地抑制各向同性环境噪声；并对宽带相干信号的互协方差矩阵进行矢量重构，即将最大特征值对应的特征向量划分为相互重叠的子向量，从而构建前/后向Hermitian矩阵；最后，基于MVDR波束形成器实现宽带相干目标的方位估计。仿真计算和实验数据处理结果表明，该方法具较强的解相干能力和噪声抑制能力以及较高的方位估计性能。     

A moving zone of quiet for narrowband noise in a one-dimensional duct using virtual sensing

A frequent problem in active noise control is that the zone of quiet created at the error sensor tends to be very small. This means that the error sensor generally needs to be located close to an observer's ear, which might not always be a convenient or feasible solution. Virtual sensing is a method that can move the zone of quiet away from the error sensor to a desired location that is spatially fixed. This method has been investigated previously, and has shown potential to improve the performance of an active noise control system. However, it is very likely that the desired location of the zone of quiet is not spatially fixed. An active noise control system incorporating a virtual sensing method thus has to be able to create a moving zone of quiet that tracks the observer's ears. This paper presents a method for creating a moving zone of quiet based on the LMS virtual microphone technique. To illustrate the proposed method, it is implemented in an acoustic duct and narrowband control results are presented. These results show that a moving zone of quiet was effectively created inside the duct for narrowband noise.     

非均匀海洋环境噪声中的匹配场处理舰船辐射噪声级估计方法

在实际舰船辐射噪声测量过程中,受非均匀海洋环境噪声的影响,导致常规测量方法的性能急剧下降,基于此,提出了一种非均匀海洋环境噪声背景中的垂直阵舰船辐射噪声测量方法。根据水声信道传播理论,建立了由海面多个空时独立均匀分布噪声源构成的非均匀背景噪声场模型,推导了非均匀海洋环境噪声场中垂直阵舰船辐射噪声估计的理论公式。针对典型的浅海水声信道,进行计算机仿真实验,分析了该方法的测量性能并与常规匹配场测量方法进行对比,结果表明:(1)该方法能有效克服非均匀海洋环境噪声对测量结果的影响,测量误差较小;(2)相同测量条件下,该方法测量性能优于常规匹配场舰船辐射噪声级测量方法;(3)当信噪比满足一定要求时,测量得到的声源级与实际声源级相比,误差小于1 dB。      

Direction-of-arrival estimation for extensible acoustic vector sensor array

Aiming at high-resolution estimation of the direction-of-arrival of closely-spaced sources at low signal-to-noise ratio regions, this paper proposes a DOA estimation algorithm that is suitable for an extensible acoustic vector sensor array. Taking the 3D array composed of the minimum number(four) of acoustic vector sensors as the acquisition module, a virtual array having the same structure as the original array structure is extended in the three-dimensional space based on the aperture expansion characteristic of higher-order cumulants. The virtual array and the real array can construct a matrix with rotational invariance, which contains the angular information for estimating DOA. The Cramer-Rao bound of the algorithm are derived. We analyze the influence of SNR, the number of snapshots and the elevation angle on the performance of the algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has better noise suppression ability and higher resolution in DOA estimation than the conventional ESPRIT algorithm using the acoustic vector array. Experiments are conducted to validate the proposed algorithm.     

Interior noise control with an active window system

An active window system to reduce the exterior noise sources, such as traffic noise and construction noise which enter rooms through open windows used for natural ventilation is proposed. The proposed system uses a feedforward control method for active noise control so as not to place the sensors and control sources inside the interior space of the building. For global noise reduction throughout the interior room, the control gains for feedforward control are calculated to minimize the total acoustic power of the new source, which is combined with the noise source corresponding to the open window and control sources on the window frame. The performance of the proposed system for directional exterior noise is confirmed with a scale-model experiment. The experimental results show that the proposed system can achieve a noise reduction of up to 10 dB for the entire room of the scale model regardless of the direction of the incident wave.     

Acoustic cluster control of noise radiated from a planar structure

Acoustic cluster control is proposed for the purpose of achieving global sound attenuation of a planar structure. First, acoustic cluster filtering using a point sensor array is presented, which enables the grouping of sound radiated from a target object into a set of clusters, such that each cluster possesses the same common characteristics. This allows the possibility of extracting the cluster of interest without causing observation spillover. Based on the principle of reciprocity, cluster actuation using a point source array is then presented. Driving the source array in accordance with a proposed control law, the excitation of the designated cluster is performed without causing control spillover. Moreover, by combining both acoustic cluster filtering and acoustic cluster actuation, acoustic cluster control may be performed. In implementing acoustic cluster control, the necessary and sufficient condition for the acoustic cluster control is illustrated. It is also shown that the sound radiated from a planar structure may be captured in appropriate acoustic cluster filtering so that acoustic cluster control may be implemented. Experiment was conducted demonstrating the capability as well as the validity of the acoustic cluster filtering, actuation, and control for suppressing the noise radiated from a rectangular panel.