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.     

Local sensing/control or global error sensing/control in structural acoustics: A comparison of two techniques influence over sound power

The active control of radiation from large structures is a difficult, though important practical problem. The major reason for the difficulty is the ‘system’ size, as a large number of sensors and actuators are required for successful implementation, thus making it hard to design a robust, efficient system that integrates all sensors and actuators. This work examines the active attenuation of the global error, sound power, from the point of view of two sensing/control strategies that seek to be generalised; thus are applicable to a wide range of applications and are independent of knowledge of structural dynamics. In each approach the idea is that the required hardware can simply be attached, turned on, and immediately being to attenuate global noise. The two strategies are compared based on the level of attenuation of the global error sound power, the attenuation per total control force, and attenuation per actuator (in a structural-acoustic situation). The first strategy is the collocated-decentralised approach, which is built on measuring and controlling local vibration in an attempt to influence the global acoustic error. An alternative approach, termed the hybrid approach is firstly developed. The approach is termed ‘hybrid’ because it is a mix between a fully ‘centralised’ and ‘decentralised’ approach; but still measuring and controlling the global acoustic error directly. The attenuation of sound power is compared for both strategies on two structural sources; using 16 identically placed velocity sensors and 16 secondary point sources, in simulation in an attempt to suggest efficient sensing and control approaches for the global control of sound radiation from large structural sources.     

Active noise control with linear control source and sensor arrays for a noise barrier

A study is conducted on minimizing the sum of the squared acoustic pressures with a linear array of control sources and a perpendicular linear array of error sensors, placed above the top of a noise barrier. Particular angular orientations, with respect to the center of the barrier top, and spacings of the linear arrays of control sources and error sensors result in moderate to significant additional reduction of the acoustic pressure in the shadow zone. Visual inspection of the sound pressure field, with and without active noise control, found that uniform and significant additional insertion loss can be generated near the barrier. Numerical simulations were conducted to test the proposed method. For separations between control sources and error sensors much less than a quarter wavelength of the primary noise disturbance, results show that the angular orientation, of the combined linear control source and sensor arrays, is a weak factor for acoustic pressure reduction in the shadow zone. Weak angle dependence serves as an advantage to the proposed method, which yields uniform performance for any angular orientation. An angular orientation involving the alignment of the furthest error sensor with the first diffracting edge of the barrier and the primary source was observed to perform well for a variety of frequencies, since the spacing between error sensors and between control sources is of the order of a quarter-wavelength. Improved noise control in the shadow zone of a barrier is achieved by the use of two control sources and angular orientation as mentioned above. Further spatial extension of the area of reduced acoustic pressure is possible by utilizing an increased number of control sources.     

Control performance and robustness of an active noise control system for uncertain primary sound fields

In this work, the control performance and robustness of an active noise control system subjected to uncertain primary sound fields are investigated. For this purpose, the performance index, residual potential energy in a desired quiet zone, is derived as a function of sound field variables, quiet zone variables, and control system variables. In the presence of uncertainty, typical measures of the robustness and performance of a control system, maximum, minimum, mean, and variance of the performance index are derived theoretically. In addition, based on the least-squares orthogonality principle, the condition for implementing the best-oriented control system, which is robust and can maximize the control performance by using a given number of control sources and sensors, is investigated. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to illustrate and verify the proposed theory.     

The active minimization of harmonic enclosed sound fields,part II: A computer simulation

This paper is Part II in a series of three papers on the active minimization of harmonic enclosed sound fields. In Part I it was shown that in order to achieve appreciable reductions in the total time averaged acoustic potential energy, E_p, in an enclosed sound field of high modal density then the primary and secondary sources must be separated by less than one half wavelength, even when a relatively large number of secondary sources are used. In this report the same theoretical basis is used to investigate the application of active control to sound fields of low modal density. By the use of a computer model of a shallow rectangular enclosure it is demonstrated that whilst the reductions in E_p which can be achieved are still critically dependent on the source locations, the criteria governing the levels of reduction are somewhat different. In particular it is shown that for a lightly damped sound field of low modal density substantial reductions in E_p can be achieved by using a single secondary source placed greater than half a wavelength from the primary source, provided that the source is placed at a maximum of the primary sound field. The problems of applying this idealized form of active noise control are then discussed, and a more practical method is presented. This involves the sampling of the sound field at a number of discrete sensor locations, and then minimizing the sum of the squared pressures at these locations. Again by use of the computer model of a shallow rectangular enclosure, the effects of the number of sensors and of the locations of these sensors are investigated. It is demonstrated that when a single mode dominates the response near optimal reductions in E_p can be achieved by minimizing the pressure at a single sensor, provided the sensor is at a maximum of the primary sound field. When two or three modes dominate the response it is found that if only a limited number of sensors are available then minimizing the sum of the squared pressures in the corners of the enclosure gives the best reductions in E_p. The reasons for this behaviour are discussed.     

Secondary actuation and error sensing for active acoustic structure

A typical approach to active control of sound radiation or transmission from vibrating structures involves active structural acoustic control (ASAC) and active noise control (ANC), which introduce respectively force input and compacted sound source to apply on or be close to the vibrating structure. However, for the ASAC approach, arrangement for secondary force and error sensor is heavily dependent upon the properties of the primary structure and acoustical space; for the ANC approach, a large number of compacted secondary sources are required. Hence, in this paper, based on distributed secondary sound source and near-field error sensor, active acoustic structure is proposed to construct adaptive or smart structure as a versatile module or element for controlling sound radiation or transmission at low frequencies. First, a theoretical model based on a minimization of the total sound radiation from the primary and secondary panel is established, after which, taking into consideration the relationship between the vibration modes pattern and sound radiation characteristics for secondary panels, optimal arrangement for the secondary panels is examined in detail. Finally, a near-field pressure-based error sensing approach is presented, based on two kinds of object function, and active control of sound radiation is performed.     

Incorporation of loudness measures in active noise control

An attempt has been made to use a modified version of a standard active noise control algorithm in order to take into account the unique response of the human auditory system. It has been shown in the past that decreasing the sound pressure level at a location does not guarantee a similar decrease in the perceived loudness at that location. Typically, active noise control is based on minimizing the "error signal" from a mechanical device such as a microphone, whose response is nominally flat across the frequency response range of the human ear. However, if the response of the ear can be approximated by digitally filtering the error signal before it reaches the adaptive controller, one can, in effect, minimize the more subjective loudness level, as opposed to the sound pressure level. The work reported here entails simulating active noise control based upon minimizing perceived loudness for a collection of input noise signals. A comparison of the loudness of the resulting error signal is made to the loudness of that resulting from standard sound pressure level minimization. It has been found that the effectiveness of this technique is largely dependent upon the nature of the input noise signal. Furthermore, this technique is judged to be worth considering for use with applications of active noise control where the uncontrolled noise more prominently constitutes low range audio frequencies (approximately 30 Hz-100 Hz) than medium range audio frequencies (approximately 300 Hz-600 Hz).     

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.     

次级源近场和管壁弹性对充液管路有源消声性能的影响EI北大核心CSCD

建立了含次级源结构的充液直管有源消声系统数值模型,重点分析了声激励下次级源近场和管壁弹性对有源消声性能的影响。结果表明:次级源近场为非均匀声场,误差点位于该区域时部分频点控制效果较差甚至放大,而处于声场均匀区域时可使降噪量提高10 dB以上,增加误差点数量可使绝大多数频点的降噪量提高5 dB以上;管壁弹性使次级源与管壁间的耦合较强,非对称分布的次级源容易激起管壁振动,导致降噪谷值的出现,采用对称分布的次级源可显著提升控制效果;增加次级源数量能够提高系统的有源无源复合控制效果,但使得管内声场变得复杂,多次级源模型的有源消声效果随频率升高而有所降低。     

Active noise control in ducts: some physical insights

The mechanisms of active noise control in a duct are examined. Acoustical measurements are used to determine directly the acoustic power flow associated with both primary and secondary sources as a function of secondary to primary source strength ratio and volume velocity relative phase angles. A complete analytical model is also developed which allows calculation of individual source power flows and total downstream power flow as a function of source strengths and relative phase angles for finite size sources. It is evaluated for monopole and dual secondary source arrangements, but can be extended easily to any number of secondary sources. The model considers a finite size primary source in the plane of the duct cross section and evaluates the effect that the secondary sources have on the primary source power output. Measurements of individual source output powers and total downstream acoustic powers agree well with theoretical predictions. It is demonstrated that, for the monopole system, sound attenuation is achieved primarily by suppression of the primary source acoustic power output, with a little remaining power being absorbed by the secondary source. For the dual secondary source system, it is shown that the power is primarily absorbed by the secondary sources, but that, at phase and amplitude values slightly different to optimum, noise reduction is achieved by a combination of energy absorption and primary source power suppression. The analysis also demonstrates the dependence of the achievable noise reduction on secondary source size and location with respect to the primary source.     

Optimization of the number and the positions of error sensors in adaptive active sound control

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海洋声场中分布式无源定位系统的节点配置方法

为了提高海洋声场中分布式无源定位系统的定位精度,提出一种基于自适应遗传算法的节点配置方法。首先,基于到达时间TOA(Time of Arrival)定位算法推导出均匀物理场与海洋声场中定位误差的CRLB(Cramer Rao Lower Bound)。之后,利用BELLHOP模型对海洋声场进行建模,获得任意位置处目标声源与节点接收信号相关的传递函数并对等效声速进行计算.以目标声源在观测区域内服从均匀分布为例,将定位误差的平均CRLB最小为优化准则,采用自适应遗传算法对节点进行优化配置。结果表明,该方法能够有效降低海洋声场中分布式无源定位系统的定位误差,并给出定位误差随节点个数增加呈非线性递减的变化趋势,可为工程应用提供理论指导。      

Sound-field reproduction in-room using optimal control techniques: simulations in the frequency domain

This paper describes the simulations and results obtained when applying optimal control to progressive sound-field reproduction (mainly for audio applications) over an area using multiple monopole loudspeakers. The model simulates a reproduction system that operates either in free field or in a closed space approaching a typical listening room, and is based on optimal control in the frequency domain. This rather simple approach is chosen for the purpose of physical investigation, especially in terms of sensing microphones and reproduction loudspeakers configurations. Other issues of interest concern the comparison with wave-field synthesis and the control mechanisms. The results suggest that in-room reproduction of sound field using active control can be achieved with a residual normalized squared error significantly lower than open-loop wave-field synthesis in the same situation. Active reproduction techniques have the advantage of automatically compensating for the room's natural dynamics. For the considered cases, the simulations show that optimal control results are not sensitive (in terms of reproduction error) to wall absorption in the reproduction room. A special surrounding configuration of sensors is introduced for a sensor-free listening area in free field.     

Investigation of spherical loudspeaker arrays for local active control of sound

Active control of sound can be employed globally to reduce noise levels in an entire enclosure, or locally around a listener's head. Recently, spherical loudspeaker arrays have been studied as multiple-channel sources for local active control of sound, presenting the fundamental theory and several active control configurations. In this paper, important aspects of using a spherical loudspeaker array for local active control of sound are further investigated. First, the feasibility of creating sphere-shaped quiet zones away from the source is studied both theoretically and numerically, showing that these quiet zones are associated with sound amplification and poor system robustness. To mitigate the latter, the design of shell-shaped quiet zones around the source is investigated. A combination of two spherical sources is then studied with the aim of enlarging the quiet zone. The two sources are employed to generate quiet zones that surround a rigid sphere, investigating the application of active control around a listener's head. A significant improvement in performance is demonstrated in this case over a conventional headrest-type system that uses two monopole secondary sources. Finally, several simulations are presented to support the theoretical work and to demonstrate the performance and limitations of the system.     

基于平面声源进行结构声辐射有源控制的实验研究

采用分布式平面声源作为次级声源,对振动钢板的声辐射进行了抵消实验,验证了以往研究中的一系列关键理论。实验研究结果表明:一个平面声源可以控制钢板奇-奇模态的声辐射,两个平面源可以控制结构偶-奇或奇-偶模态的声辐射,同时也可以控制结构奇-奇模态的声辐射;平面声源的面积和布放位置对降噪效果有重要影响,采用单个平面声源控制时,平面声源面积越大,控制效果越好;基于近场声压的误差传感策略是有效可行的,实际中,将近场测量面的声功率作为有源控制的目标函数与总声功率作为目标函数是一致的;控制后远场声压和声强都得到有效降低,部分区域的声能向声源流动,近场声压及声强分布也发生显著变化。     

Improving robustness of filtered-x least mean p-power algorithm for active attenuation of standard symmetric-α-stable impulsive noise

The paper concerns active control of impulsive noise having peaky distribution with heavy tail. Such impulsive noise can be modeled using non-Gaussian stable process for which second order moments do not exist. The most famous filtered-x least mean square (FxLMS) algorithm for active noise control (ANC) systems is based on the minimization of variance (second order moment) of error signal, and hence, becomes unstable for the impulsive noise. In order to improve the robustness of adaptive algorithms for processes having distributions with heavy tails (i.e. signals with outliers), either (1) a robust optimization criterion may be used to derive the adaptive algorithm or (2) the large amplitude samples may be ignored or replaced by an appropriate threshold value. Among the existing algorithms for ANC of impulsive noise, one is based on the minimizing least mean p-power (LMP) of the error signal, resulting in FxLMP algorithm (approach 1). The other is based on modifying; on the basis of statistical properties; the reference signal in the update equation of the FxLMS algorithm (approach 2). In this paper we propose two solutions to improve the robustness of the FxLMP algorithm. In first proposed algorithm, the reference and the error signals are thresholded before being used in the update equation of FxLMP algorithm. As another solution to improve the performance of FxLMP algorithm, a modified normalized step size is proposed. The computer simulations are carried out, which demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.     

Decentralized control of sound radiation using iterative loop recovery

A decentralized model-based control strategy is designed to reduce low-frequency sound radiation from periodically stiffened panels. While decentralized control systems tend to be scalable, performance can be limited due to modeling error introduced by the unmodeled interaction between neighboring control units. Since bounds on modeling error are not known in advance, it is difficult to ensure the decentralized control system will be robust without making the controller overly conservative. Therefore an iterative approach is suggested, which utilizes frequency-shaped loop recovery. The approach accounts for modeling error introduced by neighboring control loops, requires no communication between subsystems, and is relatively simple. The control strategy is evaluated numerically using a model of a stiffened aluminum panel that is representative of the sidewall of an aircraft. Simulations demonstrate that the iterative approach can achieve significant reductions in radiated sound power from the stiffened panel without destabilizing neighboring control units.     

A compound secondary source for active noise radiation control

Based on the analysis of active noise control system with multi-channel monopole secondary sources, a kind of compound secondary source is proposed in this paper. The proposed compound secondary source consists of two closely located monopole sources with their distance much smaller than a wavelength. The characteristics of the compound source are analyzed, and the performances of the active noise control system with the compound secondary sources on the monopole primary sound field and sound radiated by a plate are investigated both numerically and experimentally. It has been found that the proposed compound secondary sources control system can provide higher noise reduction for free field noise radiation control with the same number of control channels. It is shown that the better performance in noise reduction of the compound secondary sources control system is mainly due to the directivity of the secondary sources where the energy radiation pattern of the compound sources is similar to that of the primary sources.     

Superheating Control of ORC Systems via Minimum (h,φ)-Entropy Control

The Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is one kind of appropriate energy recovery techniques for low grade heat sources. Since the mass flow rate and the inlet temperature of heat sources usually experience non-Gaussian fluctuations, a conventional linear quadratic performance criterion cannot characterize the system uncertainties adequately. This paper proposes a new model free control strategy which applies the (h,φ)-entropy criterion to decrease the randomness of controlled ORC systems. In order to calculate the (h,φ)-entropy, the kernel density estimation (KDE) algorithm is used to estimate the probability density function (PDF) of the tracking error. By minimizing the performance criterion mainly consisting of (h,φ)-entropy, a new control algorithm for ORC systems is obtained. The stability of the proposed control system is analyzed. The simulation results show that the ORC system under the proposed control method has smaller standard deviation (STD) and mean squared error (MSE), and reveals less randomness than those of the traditional PID control algorithm.     

Performance of an independent planar virtual sound barrier at the opening of a rectangular enclosure

Planar virtual sound barrier systems have been used successfully to reduce noise radiation through an opening without affecting natural ventilation and lighting. However, the complexity of a fully coupled control system grows at the rate proportional to the square of the number of channels and this make the system implementation become impractical for enclosures with large openings. To reduce the system complexity, this paper proposes an independent planar virtual sound barrier, which is a multi-channel system consisting of many independent single channel active noise control systems. Each single channel system is “independent” in the sense that the control source output of the system is updated only with the signal from its own error sensor. Based on the analytical model of sound radiation through the opening of a rectangular enclosure, the transfer functions from both primary and control sources are calculated first. Then the noise reduction performance, the stability, and the convergence behavior of both fully coupled and independent planar virtual sound barrier systems are investigated. It is found that the independent system with no control output constraint becomes inherently unstable at some frequencies; however its stability can be improved by applying some control output constraint. Reducing the number of channels and the distance between secondary loudspeakers and error microphones can also increase system stability but at the cost of smaller noise reduction. When the system is inherently stable and there is no constraint on control output, the independent system can provide the same noise reduction as the fully coupled one but with faster convergence speed.