Refined multiload method for measuring acoustical source characteristics of an intake or exhaust system

The one-port source characteristics in a duct system, viz., source impedance and strength, can be determined by using the four-load method. In this paper, to avoid the instability problem of the conventional four-load method, a new formulation for the multiload method has been proposed, which employs an error function based on the linear, time-invariant source model. It is shown that the method is less sensitive to input errors compared to the previous methods. For a 10% input error, the proposed method yields a relative error in the source resistance that is about 1/100 times smaller than for the conventional method. The effectiveness of the present method is demonstrated by two test examples, a loudspeaker and a blower, each operating in a duct. It is observed that the conventional and least-squares methods result in large errors, whereas the present method yields far better agreement with the actual source parameters, as measured by the direct method. The present method is then used to obtain the source parameters on the exhaust side of an operating internal combustion engine. The radiated sound spectrum from the exhaust opening is predicted by using the measured source parameters and the calculated result agrees very well with the measured one.