Influence of mesoscale urban morphology on the spatial noise attenuation of flyover aircrafts

The influence of urban morphology of low-density built-up areas on spatial noise level attenuation of flyover aircrafts is investigated at a mesoscale. Six urban morphological parameters, including Building Plan Area Fraction, Complete Aspect Ratio, Building Surface Area to Plan Area Ratio, Building Frontal Area Index, Height-to-Width Ratio, and Horizontal Distance of First-row Building to Flight Path, have been selected and developed. Effects of flight altitude and horizontal flight path distance to site, on spatial aircraft noise attenuation, are examined, considering open areas and façades. Twenty sampled sites, each of 250 m * 250 m, are considered. The results show that within 1000 m horizontal distance of flight path to a site, urban morphology plays an important role in open areas, especially for the buildings with high sound absorption façades, where the variance of average noise level attenuation among different sites is about 4.6 dB at 3150 Hz. The effect of flight altitude of 200–400 ft on average noise level attenuation is not significant, within about 2 dB at both 630 Hz and1600 Hz in open areas. Urban morphological parameters influence the noise attenuation more in open areas than that on façades. Spatial noise attenuation of flyover aircrafts is mainly correlated to Building Frontal Area Index and Horizontal Distance of First-row Building to Flight Path.     

Experimental study of the effect of viscoelastic damping materials on noise and vibration reduction within railway vehicles

Interior noise and vibration reduction has become one important concern of railway operating environments due to the influence of increased speeds and reduced vehicle weights for energy efficiency. Three types of viscoelastic damping materials, bitumen-based damping material, water-based damping coating and butyl rubber damping material, were developed to reduce the vibration and noise within railway vehicles. Two sleeper carriages were furnished with the new materials in different patterns of constrained-layer and free-layer damping treatment. The measurements of vibration and noise were carried out in three running carriages. It is found that the reduction effect of damping treatments depends on the running speed. The unweighted root-mean-square acceleration is reduced by 0.08–0.79 and 0.06–0.49 m/s² for the carriage treated by bitumen-based as well as water-based damping materials and water-based damping material, respectively. The first two materials reduce vibration in a wider frequency range of 63–1000 Hz than the last. It turns out that the damping treatments of the first two reduce the interior noise level by 5–8 dBA within the carriage, and the last damping material by 1–6 dBA. However, the specific loudness analysis of noises shows that the noise components between 125 and 250 Hz are dominant for the overall loudness, although the low-frequency noise is noticeably decreased by the damping materials. The measure of loudness is shown to be more accurate to assess reduction effect of the damping material on the acoustic comfort.     

Noise control challenges for auscultation on medical evacuation helicopters

A stethoscope is the standard clinical tool used for auscultation. It amplifies chest sounds and enables diagnosis of both circulatory and respiratory systems. However, in many emergency transportation environments, ambient noise levels in excess of 90 dB prevent successful auscultation. In this paper, data is collected in a U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter to analyze the inherent noise present during routine aeromedical transport. Data is gathered with a commercially available stethoscope retrofitted with an array of accelerometers and microphones. Peak acoustic noise levels are recorded in excess of 125 dB and ambient vibration levels are measured to be near 0.5 g RMS. The signal-to-noise ratio is much below 1 for the entire frequency range of interest in auscultation. It is shown using a combination of simulations and experimental data that existing active noise cancellation techniques using a reference microphone would be ineffective in this scenario. However, similar adaptive noise cancellation techniques using a reference accelerometer within the device would be significantly more effective at enabling auscultation.     

A new digital readout integrated circuit (DROIC) with pixel parallel A/D conversion and reduced quantization noise

This paper represents a novel digital readout for infrared focal plane arrays with 2.33 Ge⁻ charge handling capacity while achieving quantization noise of 161 e⁻. Pixel level A/D conversion has been realized by pulse frequency modulation (PFM) technique supported with a novel method utilizing extended integration that eliminates the requirement for an additional column ADC. Digital pixel operates with two phases; the first phase is as ordinary PFM in charge domain and the second phase is in time domain, allowing the fine quantization and low quantization noise. A 32 × 32 prototype has been manufactured and tested. Measured peak SNR at half well fill is 71 dB with significant SNR improvement for low illuminated pixels due to extremely low quantization noise. 32 × 32 ROIC dissipates only 1.1 mW and the figure of merit for power dissipation is measured to be 465 fJ/LSB, compared to 930 fJ/LSB and 1470 fJ/LSB of the state of the art.     

The production of Sr hexaferrite thick films by screen printing

Hydrothermally synthesised Sr hexaferrite (HT-SrM) powder with a distinct plate-like shape and conventional Sr hexaferrite (c-SrM) powder were used to screen print SrM thick films on alumina substrates. In the case of the HT-SrM thick films, a very strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy has been observed with remanence values of up to 42±2 J/T kg for the perpendicular direction and 15±1 J/T kg for the in-plane direction, and with coercivities of around 159±8 kA/m for both directions when fired at 1300°C. When fired at 1150°C, the remanences were 49±2 and 27±2 J/T kg for the two directions with a higher coercivity of 247±8 kA/m for both directions. The SEM micrographs showed that the platelet grains in the printed films lay with their flat surfaces on the substrate and XRD results revealed that the c-axis of the grains oriented perpendicularly to the film surface. The (0 0 8) plane, which is, for a random oriented sample, a very weak peak, appeared as the strongest in the XRD pattern for the films. EDX and XRD studies indicated significant reaction at the interfaces between the film and the substrate when the sintering temperature was raised to 1350°C.For the SrM thick films obtained from planetary milled ultrafine Sr hexaferrite and conventional Sr hexaferrite powder, a slight in-plane anisotropy could be observed with a coercivity of 318±8 kA/m.     

1/f Noise QWIPs and nBn detectors

The low-frequency noise is a ubiquitous phenomenon and the spectral power density of this fluctuation process is inversely proportional to the frequency of the signal. We have measured the 1/f noise of a 640 × 512 pixel quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP) focal plane array (FPA) with 6.2 μm peak wavelength. Our experimental observations show that this QWIP FPA’s 1/f noise corner frequency is about 0.1 mHz. With this kind of low frequency stability, QWIPs could unveil a new class of infrared applications that have never been imagined before. Furthermore, we present the results from a similar 1/f noise measurement of bulk InAsSb absorber (lattice matched to GaSb substrate) nBn detector array with 4.0 μm cutoff wavelength.     

Development of composite plate for compact silencer design

A compact flow-through plate silencer is constructed for low frequency noise control using new reinforced composite plates. The concept comes from the previous theoretical study [L. Huang, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 119 (2006) 2628–2638] which concerns a clamped supported plate enclosed by rigid cavities. When the grazing incident sound wave comes and induces the plate into the vibration, it will radiate sound and reflect sound. Such sound reflection causes a desirable noise reduction from low to medium frequency with wide broadband. The structural property of the very light plate with high bending stiffness is very crucial element in such plate silencer. In this study, an approach to fabricate new reinforced composite panel with light weight and high flexibility to increase the bending stiffness is developed in order to realize the function of this plate silencer practically. The plate silencer can be constructed in more compact size compared with the previous two-plate silencer with two rectangular cavities and the performance with the stopband of the range from 229 to 618 Hz, in which the transmission loss is higher than 10 dB over the whole frequency band without flow or with flow at the speed of 15 m/s, can be achieved. The experimental data also proves that the non-uniform clamped plates with thinner ends perform very well. To implement the use of such silencer practically in controlling noise at different dominant frequency ranges, a design chart has been established for searching the optimal bending stiffness and corresponding stopband at different geometries.     

Wide-field imaging using a tunable terahertz free electron laser and a thermal image plate

The appearance of intense terahertz sources such as quantum cascade laser and free electron laser opens up new opportunities for 2D imaging. Though microbolometer and pyroelectric arrays are promising recorders, they are of small size and cannot be used when wide-field imaging in the longwave region is required. We applied for terahertz imaging 3″ × 3″ and 6″ × 6″ Macken Instruments Inc. “thermal image plates”, a set of thermal sensitive phosphor screens operating in a room temperature environment. The Novosibirsk free electron laser was used as a source of radiation. We have found that the response of thermal image plate is linear until the relative quenching is less than 60% of the initial luminescence intensity. The response curve follows the Seitz–Mott law. The threshold sensitivity was found to be 100 mW/cm² at 1.5 THz and 40 mW/cm² at 2.3 THz. Interferograms, holograms, and terahertz beam spatial distributions recorded in the spectral range of 1.2–2.5 THz are given as examples.     

Structural origin of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Ni–W thin films

The magnetic properties and microstructure of electrodeposited Ni–W thin films (0–11.7 at% W in composition) were studied. The film structures were divided into three regions: an FCC nanocrystalline phase (0–2 at% W), a transition region from FCC nanocrystalline to amorphous phase (2–7 at% W), and an amorphous phase (>7 at% W). In the transition region, (4–5 at% W) films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) were found. The saturation magnetization, magnetic anisotropy field, perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and perpendicular coercivity for a typical Ni–W film (4.5 at% W) were 420 kA/m, 451 kA/m, 230 kJ/m and 113 kA/m, respectively. The microstructure of Ni–W films with PMA is composed of isolated columnar crystalline grains (27–36 nm) with the FCC phase surrounded by the Ni–W amorphous phase. The appearance of the interface between the magnetic core of Ni crystalline grains and the Ni–W non-magnetic boundary layer seems to be the driving mechanism for the appearance of PMA. The origin of PMA in Ni–W films is mainly attributed to the magnetoelastic anisotropy associated with in-plane internal stress and positive magnetostriction. The secondary source of PMA is believed to be the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of 〈1 1 1〉 columnar grains and its shape magnetic anisotropy. It is concluded that Ni–W electrodeposited films (4–5 at% W) may be applicable for perpendicular magnetic recording media.     

Simulation of the acceleration mechanism by light-propulsion for the powder particles at laser direct material deposition

The results of the numerical analysis of heat- and mass-transfer processes at powder particles' motion in a gas flow and laser beam by light-propulsion force during the laser cladding and direct material deposition are presented. Under consideration were the stainless steel particles, the radiation power range of the CO₂ laser were 1000, 3000 and 5000 W. Finally, the particles of 45 μm in diameter reach the maximum velocity of about 80, 220, 280 m/s. It is shown that as particles are heated by the laser up to the temperature approaching the boiling point, the particles' velocity in the light field by the vapor recoil pressure may increase significantly. The radius of the particles slightly varies due to the evaporation; the losses in the clad material mass are negligibly small. Comparisons of numerical results with known experimental data on light-propulsion acceleration of single particles (aluminum, aluminum oxide and graphite) under the influence of pulse laser radiation are also presented. Particle acceleration resulting from the laser evaporation depends on the particle diameter, powder material properties, focusing degree and attenuation laser beam intensity by the direction of its propagation.     

Measurement and analysis of rolling tire vibrations

This paper presents the measurement and analysis of rolling tire vibrations due to road impact excitations, such as from cobbled roads, junctions between concrete road surface plates, railroad crossings. Vibrations of the tire surface due to road impact excitations cause noise radiation in the frequency band typically below 500 Hz. Tire vibration measurements with a laser Doppler vibrometer are performed on a test set-up based on a tire-on-tire principle which allows highly repetitive and controllable impact excitation tests under various realistic operating conditions. The influence on the measured velocity of random noise, cross sensitivity and alignment errors is discussed. An operational modal analysis technique is applied on sequential vibration measurements to characterise the dynamic behaviour of the rolling tire. Comparison between the operational modal parameters of the rolling tire and the modal parameters of the non-rolling tire allows an assessment of the changes in dynamic behaviour due to rolling.     

Temperature measurements of high-temperature semi-transparent infrared material using multi-wavelength pyrometry

Temperature measurements inside semi-transparent materials are important in many fields. This study investigates the measurements of interior temperature distributions in a one-dimensional semi-transparent material using multi-wavelength pyrometry based on the Levenberg–Marquardt method (LMM). The investigated material is semi-transparent Zinc Sulfide (ZnS), an infrared-transmitting optical material operating at long wavelengths. The radiation properties of the one-dimensional semi-transparent ZnS plate, including the effective spectral–directional radiation intensity and the proportion of emitted radiation, are numerically discussed at different wavelengths (8.0–14.0 μm) and temperature distributions (400–800 K) to provide the basic data for the temperature inversion problem. Multi-wavelength pyrometry was combined with the Levenberg–Marquardt method to resolve the temperature distribution along the radiative transfer direction based on the line-of-sight spectral radiation intensities at multiple wavelengths in the optimized spectral range of (11.0–14.0 μm) for the semi-transparent ZnS plate. The analyses of the non-linear inverse problem show that with less than 5.0% noise, the inversion temperature results using the Levenberg–Marquardt method are satisfactory for linear or Gaussian temperature distributions in actual applications. The analysis provides valuable guidelines for applications using multi-wavelength pyrometry for temperature measurements of semi-transparent materials.     

Incident angle and temperature dependence of WSi wire-grid polarizer

The dependences of the incident angle and thermal durability of a tungsten silicide (WSi) wire-grid polarizer were examined. A WSi grating with a 0.5 fill factor, 260 nm depth, and 400 nm period was formed on a Si surface using two-beam interference and dry etching. The TM transmission spectrum of the fabricated element was greater than 60% at the incident angle of θ = 40° (the angle between the incident direction and the perpendicular axis to the grating direction) in the 4–10 μm wavelength range. An extinction ratio of 22.2 dB was achieved at 2.5 μm wavelength. Additionally, results show that this polarizer has higher thermal resistance than that of commercial infrared polarizers. Therefore, this polarizer is effective for taking a polarized thermal image of high temperatures.     

Noise emission assessment of a hybrid electric mid-size truck

In the attempt to improve urban environmental conditions, city or national incentives encourage the use of cleaner vehicles, including hybrid electric vehicles. This paper explores the actual noise impact of this alternative drivetrain technology on the noise emission of a mid-size delivery truck powered by a parallel hybrid powertrain, compared with an equivalent internal combustion engine truck on the basis of pass-by noise measurements. It investigates jointly the overall emission, the main noise sources and the vertical directivity of the vehicle. The essential benefit results from the existence of a full-electric mode below 50 km/h, with a significant noise reduction which may exceed 8 dB(A) at low constant speed. Even if smaller, this noise advantage is still valuable when the vehicle is accelerating or braking. Due to weaker noise emitted upwards, the benefit should be even greater for residents living on upper building floors. The rolling noise associated with the drive wheel/road contact is the main noise source in all driving situations in electric mode, and beyond 50 km/h in the configurations with engine.     

Optimization of CW-OSL parameters for improved dose detection threshold in Al2O3:C

Continuous wave optically stimulated luminescence (CW-OSL) is relatively a simple technique that offers good signal to noise ratio (SNR) and involves simple instrumentation. This study reports the influence and optimization of CW-OSL parameters on minimum detectable dose (MDD) using α-Al₂O₃:C phosphor. It is found that at a given stimulation intensity MDD in CW-OSL mode depends on signal integration time. At lower integration times MDD is inferior. It exhibits an improvement for intermediate values, shows a plateau region and deteriorates as integration time increases further. MDD is found to be ∼127 μGy at 4 mW/cm² stimulation intensity for integration time of 0.1 s, which improves to ∼10.5 μGy for 60 s. At stimulation intensity of 72 mW/cm², MDD is 37 μGy for integration time of 60 s and improves significantly to 7 μGy for 1 s.     

Antenna length and polarization response of antenna-coupled MOM diode infrared detectors

This work focuses on the fabrication and response of dipole antenna-coupled metal–oxide–metal diode detectors to long-wave infrared radiation. The detectors are fabricated using a single electron beam lithography step and a shadow evaporation technique. The detector’s characteristics are presented, which include response as a function of incident infrared power and polarization angle. In addition, the effect of dipole antenna length on detection characteristics for 10.6 μm radiation has been measured to determine resonant lengths. The response of the detector shows a first resonance at a dipole length of 3.1 μm, a second resonance at 9.3 μm, and third at 15.5 μm. The zeros intermediate to the resonances are also evident.     

Fabrication and characterization on an organic/inorganic 2 × 2 Mach–Zehnder interferometer thermo-optic switch

An organic/inorganic hybrid 2 × 2 directional coupler (DC) Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) thermo-optic (TO) switch was successfully designed and fabricated using simple direct ultraviolet photolithography process. The hybrid organic/inorganic waveguide structure includes poly-methyl-methacrylate-glycidyl-methacrylate (P(MMA-GMA)), SU-8 2005 and silica as core, upper cladding and under cladding, respectively. Device optimization and simulation were performed to decrease radiation loss and leakage loss, quicken response time and cut down power consumption. Measurements of the fabricated devices at 1550 nm wavelength result in a switching power of 7.2 mW, a response time of ∼100 μs, and crosstalk of −22.8 and −26.5 dB under cross state and bar state, respectively. Besides, the driving-noise-tolerance characteristics of this device were experimentally investigated by directly imposing a generated tunable noise on the pure driving signal (4 V_pp) and the minimum extinction ratio is larger than 18 dB under a noise level of 2.5 V_pp. The effect of noise on extinction ratio was found decreased with the increase of noise frequency.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of the effect of a speed bump on car noise emission level

The noise emission level associated with two types of speed reducers has been investigated numerically and experimentally for different dimensions and different speeds of vehicle (20, 40 and 60 km/h) and zero acceleration. Numerical analysis has been performed using an FEM method in the ANSYS environment. The experiments show that for a bump of height 0.04 m, the peak noise level is increased by between 1 and 14 dB (A) whereas, for bump of height 0.055 m, the peak noise level increases by between 1 and 19 dB (A). There is an excellent agreement between the numerical and experimental results.