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.     

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.     

Study on the analogy feedback active soft edge noise barrier

It is feasible to enhance the effect of reduction of the noise barrier on low frequency noise using the active control system. On the basis of the forerunners’ research, an analogy feedback active control system that is easy to be carried out was arranged on the top of a noise barrier to form an analogy feedback active soft edge noise barrier in order to enhance the effect of reduction of the noise barrier on low frequency noise. Through a preliminary experimental study, this method was proved to be feasible and the following preliminary conclusions on the arrangement of active control systems were made: (1) when control sources were arranged in a single row, the control effect was determined by the density of arrangement: the higher the density, the better the control effect; (2) with the same density of arrangement, the control effect of the double row arrangement was better than that of the single row arrangement; (3) with the same number of control sources, the single row arrangement had better control effect than the double row arrangement.     

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.     

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.     

Optimal acoustic error sensing for global active control in a harmonically excited enclosure

The performance of an active control system in global control of enclosed sound fields depends largely on the localization of the error sensors, among other factors. In this paper a modified cost function is proposed in order to guarantee the maximum attenuation that can be produced by a set of secondary sources in the case of an harmonically excited sound field. The cost function is modified in order to drive the error signal to the value corresponding to the optimally attenuated sound field, instead of minimizing the squared pressure. To evaluate the performance of the proposed control system, its robustness against unstructured error is also investigated using a set of intensive calculations. Following this approach, the sensors can be located anywhere and the optimal attenuation is reached using an equal number of error sensors and secondary sources. The results also suggest that the greater the number of error sensors than secondary sources the more robust the control system is. This behavior holds for both the usual strategy of minimizing the squared pressure and the approach presented in this paper. However, the latter strategy is more robust than the traditional approach of minimizing the squared pressures and its robustness does not depend on the location of the error sensors. Thus, as a main conclusion, the use of the new cost function leads to a guaranteed efficiency and a more robust control system and gives absolute freedom in selecting the location of the error sensors.     

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.     

Active control of radiation from a piston set in a rigid sphere

Active control of the sound radiated from a piston set in a rigid sphere with a set of control point sources around is considered in this paper, where the scattering sound field of the control sound from the rigid sphere has been taken into account to minimize the total radiated sound power. Analytic results of the sound power are obtained and numerical simulations show that it is possible to reduce the radiation from a small piston set in a rigid sphere similar to the size of a human head up to a certain frequency. It is found that the introduction of the scattering object makes significant differences from the active control without scattering objects. This being the case, the scattering object makes the active noise control easier. To increase the global reduction of sound-power output, the optimal number and locations of the control sources and the optimal number and locations of error sensors are discussed. Finally, experiments with one control source and one error sensor around a head simulator have been carried out to verify the simulation results.     

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.     

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.     

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。     

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.     

Model independent control of lightly damped noise/vibration systems

Feedforward control is a popular strategy of active noise/vibration control. In well-damped noise/vibration systems, path transfer functions from actuators to sensors can be modeled by finite impulse response (FIR) filters with negligible errors. It is possible to implement noninvasive model independent feedforward control by a recently proposed method called orthogonal adaptation. In lightly damped noise/vibration systems, however, path transfer functions have infinite impulse responses (IIRs) that cause difficulties in design and implementation of broadband feedforward controllers. A major source of difficulties is model error if IIR path transfer functions are approximated by FIR filters. In general, active control performance deteriorates as model error increases. In this study, a new method is proposed to design and implement model independent feedforward controllers for broadband in lightly damped noise/vibration systems. It is shown analytically that the proposed method is able to drive the convergence of a noninvasive model independent feedforward controller to improve broadband control in lightly damped noise/vibration systems. The controller is optimized in the minimum H2 norm sense. Experiment results are presented to verify the analytical results.     

Robust algorithm of direction of arrival estimation for coherent wideband sources in unknown correlated noise fields

A robust algorithm of direction of arrival (DOA) estimation for coherent wideband sources in unknown correlated noise fields was investigated. The noise is usually unknown and correlated among sensors in practical applications, especially for arrays with comparatively small apertures. The spatially correlated noise incurs an increase in focusing error and a severe degradation in the DOA estimation, and therefore a method of focusing transformation based on differentiating covariance matrix was proposed to eliminate noise, hence reduce the focusing error. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

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.     

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.     

Active noise attenuation in ventilation windows

The feasibility of applying active noise control techniques to attenuate low frequency noise transmission through a natural ventilation window into a room is investigated analytically and experimentally. The window system is constructed by staggering the opening sashes of a spaced double glazing window to allow ventilation and natural light. An analytical model based on the modal expansion method is developed to calculate the low frequency sound field inside the window and the room and to be used in the active noise control simulations. The effectiveness of the proposed analytical model is validated by using the finite element method. The performance of the active control system for a window with different source and receiver configurations are compared, and it is found that the numerical and experimental results are in good agreement and the best result is achieved when the secondary sources are placed in the center at the bottom of the staggered window. The extra attenuation at the observation points in the optimized window system is almost equivalent to the noise reduction at the error sensor and the frequency range of effective control is up to 390 Hz in the case of a single channel active noise control system.     

A simplified adaptive feedback active noise control system

In the adaptive feedback active noise control system based on the internal model control (IMC) structure, the reference signal is regenerated by synthesizing the error signal and the secondary signal filtered with the estimation of the secondary path, hence more computation load and extra programming are required. Motivated by the engineering truth that the primary noise cannot be completely cancelled in most practical active noise control applications and the error signal still contains some portions of the primary noise, a simplified adaptive feedback active noise control system is proposed in this paper, which adopts the error signal directly as the reference signal in an adaptive feedforward control system and utilizes the leaky filtered-x LMS algorithm to update the controller. The convergence properties of the proposed system are investigated and its advantages are discussed by comparing with other feedback control systems as well as the weakness. Finally, simulations and experiments are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system.     

次级声源优化布放的局部空间有源降噪

针对区域有源降噪问题,为获得更优降噪效果,根据实际次级通路传递函数,提出次级声源优化布放的有源控制系统并详细比较了两种次级声源优化布放算法与次级声源均匀布放的实际降噪效果。应用的第一种次级声源优化算法是l₂范数约束的约束匹配追踪算法,第二种次级声源优化算法是l₁范数约束的稀疏正则化方法。在全消声室中利用扬声器线阵进行多通道有源降噪实验研究,实验结果表明,在200～1000 Hz,次级声源优化布放的控制系统的平均降噪量比次级声源均匀布放的控制系统的平均降噪量多5 dB左右;在1100～1900 Hz,次级声源优化布放的控制系统的平均降噪量比次级声源均匀布放的控制系统的平均降噪量多11～13 dB左右,次级声源优化布放的控制系统的降噪量分布更加均匀且次级声源输出能量更小。此外,两种优化算法中,稀疏正则化方法的降噪效果更佳。     

An electro-acoustics impedance error criterion and its application to active noise control

Characteristics of radiation impedance and its inducing variation of electrical impedance for a controllable source have been investigated. An impedance-based error criterion has been proposed and its application to active noise control is demonstrated through a coil driven loudspeaker. A general formula of radiation impedance is derived for two control strategies, according to the criterion of total acoustic power output. The radiation impedances of some commonly used sound sources are calculated. We discuss in detail the relation between variation of the input electrical impedance and radiation impedance for the two control strategies. An AC-bridge circuit is designed to measure the weak variation of electrical impedance resulted from radiation impedance. The input electrical impedance of a loudspeaker was measured and the experimental result is consistent with that of theoretical analysis. An impedance-based error criterion is proposed since the AC-bridge relative output is unique for a certain control strategy. The implementation of this criterion applied to an active control system is analyzed by simulations. An analogue control system is set up and experiments are carried out in a semi-anechoic chamber to verify the new control approach.