Multiple fans are sometimes used in an array configuration to cool various types of electronic equipment. In addition to adding another noise source, using two fans with closely spaced blade passage frequencies (BPF) can create an annoying beat frequency. A two fan array with each fan having a different BPF was considered. The fans were theoretically modeled at the BPF and first harmonics. Each fan has two acoustic paths to the far field. Thus, each fan was modeled as a two source array. The first control configuration consisted of one control filter using six control sources and six error sensors in a fully coupled control system designed to control both fans simultaneously. The second configuration used two independent controllers with three control sources and three error sensors, one controller per fan. Experimentally, the averaged narrow band reduction of the BPFs and the second harmonic of the two independent controllers were 15.6 and 7.4 dB respectively, compared to a reduction of 14.4 and 5.7 dB at the two frequencies using a single control loop. The results suggest that independent controllers perform better than the single control loop for the fan array studied. Optimization of active noise control systems has increased performance but sometimes with decreased robustness. Two control source configurations for the sound power reduction of a simple source were analyzed by modeling the control systems. The two control source configurations were four symmetric control sources surrounding the noise source and an optimized linear array of four control sources. Simulation results show the linear array control source configuration is more sensitive to microphone placement errors, with a 20-33 dB reduction in attenuation for a microphone placement error of 2 mm compared to a 0.8 dB drop in attenuation for the symmetric case. The linear array configuration was found to be more sensitive to the microphone placement errors compared to the symmetric configuration. A 2.5 mm change in one microphone position causes an average of 6 dB loss in attenuation for the linear array configuration compared to a 0.6 dB loss for the symmetric configuration.

Noise from information technology (IT) equipment is a significant problem in today's modern society. Active Noise Control (ANC) has shown promise in reducing the effect of IT fan noise on users. Though ANC has been applied to axial fans (such as those found in desktop computers), it has not been applied to centrifugal fans, such as those found in laptop computers. This work applies an ANC method to a centrifugal fan mounted in a mock laptop enclosure. This method is applied in four steps. First, secondary sources are placed in the vicinity of the fan. Second, an accurate model of the radiation from the fan and secondary sources is constructed. Third, the total power radiated from this system is minimized. This creates nodal lines in the vicinity of the fan. Fourth, ANC error sensors are placed on the nodal lines predicted by the model. This creates these nodal lines experimentally, thus creating the minimum power condition. The noise from the exhaust and inlets of the fan will first be controlled individually. Then the method will be applied to the combined system. Global sound power radiation will be measured in all cases.

Active noise control (ANC) has been implemented using analog filters to reduce broadband noise from a small axial cooling fan. Previous work successfully attenuated narrow-band, tonal portions of the noise using a digital controller. The practical performance limits of this system were reached and it was desirable to attenuate the noise further. Additional research, therefore, sought to attenuate broadband noise from the fan using a digital controller, but performance was limited by the group delay inherent in the digital signal processor (DSP). Current research attempts to further attenuate broadband noise and improve performance of the system by combining the tonal controller with an analog feedback controller. An analog controller is implemented in parallel with the digital controller without degrading the performance of either individual controller. Broadband noise is attenuated in a certain frequency region, but at the expense of increasing noise in adjacent frequency regions. Results show that a single-input single-output (SISO) controller is preferable to a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) controller for this system.

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Active structural acoustic control has previously been used to reduce low-frequency sound radiation from relatively simple laboratory structures. However, significant implementation issues have to be addressed before active control can be used on large, complex structures such as an aircraft fuselage. The purpose of this project is to extend decentralized structural control systems from individual bays to more realistic airframe structures. In addition, to make this investigation more applicable to industry, potential control strategies are evaluated using a realistic aft-cabin disturbance identified from flight test data. This work focuses on decentralized control, which implies that each control unit is designed and implemented independently. While decentralized control systems are relatively scalable, performance can be limited due to the destabilizing interaction between neighboring controllers. An in-depth study of this problem demonstrates that the modeling error introduced by neighboring controllers can be expressed as the product of the complementary sensitivity function of the neighboring control unit multiplied by a term that quantifies the diagonal dominance of the plant. This understanding can be used to improve existing control strategies. For instance, decentralized performance can often be improved by penalizing control effort at the zeros of the local control model. This stabilizes each control unit and reduces the modeling error induced on neighboring controllers. Additional analyses show that the performance of decentralized model-based control systems can be improved by augmenting the structural damping using robust, low-authority control strategies such as direct velocity feedback and positive position feedback. Increasing the structural damping can supplement the performance of the model-based control strategy and reduce the destabilizing interaction between neighboring control units. Instead of using low-authority controllers to stabilize the decentralized control system, another option is to modify the model-based design. Specifically, an iterative approach is developed and validated using real-time control experiments performed on a structural-acoustic system with poles close to the stability boundary, non-minimum phase zeros, and unmodeled dynamics. Experiments demonstrate that the iterative control strategy, which combines frequency-shaped linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control with loop transfer recovery (LTR), is capable of achieving 12dB peak reductions and a 3.6dB integrated reduction in radiated sound power from a rib-stiffened aluminum panel. / Ph. D.

Research presented herein involved the use of a smart skin treatment used for the attenuation of turbulent boundary layer induced interior noise. The treatment consisted of several Smart Foam actuators each having a reference and error sensor along with a feed forward, filtered-x controller. Studies were performed to determine if the use of multiple instances of single input, single output (SISO) control systems could be implemented with success given the difficulty of actively suppressing turbulent boundary layer induced interior noise. Further, this research will lead to the development of an integrated Smart Foam element consisting of a Smart Foam actuator, reference sensor, error sensor and SISO controller in one complete, stand--alone unit. Several topics were studied during this effort: reference sensing, error sensing, actuator design, controller causality, correlation of turbulent flow and resulting plate vibration, and coherence between plate vibration and the interior noise field. Each study was performed with the goal of improving the performance of active attenuation of turbulent boundary layer induced interior noise. Depending on the configuration of the control system, control was performed using either experiments or simulations based on experimental data. Within the desired control band of 400--800~Hz, attenuation of up to -3.1~dB$_A$ was achieved at the error sensors and up to -1.4~dB$_A$ within the observer plane relative to the uncontrolled case. However, over a band of greater coherence from 480--750~Hz, attenuation of up to -4.8~dB$_A$ was achieved at the error sensors and up to -2.6~dB$_A$ within the observer plane. Further, peak attenuation of up to -12~dB$_A$ was achieved within the observer plane. Studies were also conducted to increase the low frequency performance of the Smart Foam treatment. These experiments used tuning masses placed on the tops of the integrated Smart Foam elements to tune them to the fundamental mode of the vibrating plate. This treatment was used to reactively attenuate plate vibration such that the radiated acoustic field would be minimized. These experiments resulted in -6~dB$_A$ global attenuation at the plate fundamental resonance. Further, it was shown that the reactive treatment did not inhibit active control. / Ph. D.