Significant interior noise and vibrations in aircraft cabins are generated by the turbulent flow over the fuselage. The turbulent boundary layer (TBL) excitation is the most important noise source for jet powered aircraft during cruise flight. Reduced levels of interior noise are desirable both for comfort and health reasons. However, to efficiently design noise control systems, and to design new and optimized structures that are more efficient in the noise reduction, a clearer understanding of the sound radiation and transmission mechanisms is crucial. This task is far from being straightforward, mainly due to the complexity of the system consisted by the aircraft fuselage, and all the sound transmission mechanisms involved in a such complex environment. The present work aims to give a contribution for the understanding of these mechanisms. For that, a coupled aero-vibro-acoustic analytical model for the prediction of the TBL-induced noise and vibration in aircraft is developed. Closed form analytical expressions are obtained to predict the structural vibration levels, noise radiated from the structure and interior sound pressure levels. / Graduate

The causes and characteristics of structurally induced interior noise in cars in relation to the boom problem is discussed and the relevant theory developed. The work is concerned with structural excitation of the air within the passenger compartment associated with the second order component of the engine crankshaft out of balance forces. This limits the frequency range of interest to below 200 Hz. Firstly, the acoustic modes of a Rover Metro passenger compartment are predicted using the finite element method. A new method for the experimental acoustic modal analysis of cavities is introduced and verified for a rectangular rigid walled room. The method is then applied to the untrimmed passenger compartment of a Rover Metro to determine its acoustic modes and to study the interaction of the structural modes of the vehicle body and acoustic response of the cavity. The acoustics of a Rover Metro passenger compartment are modelled using the finite element method with experimental structural FRF data from the car body as a forcing function. This model is used to predict the noise spectra associated with the second order component of engine excitation experienced by occupants for the bare body. The acoustic effects of various items of trim are added to the model as acoustic absorption coefficients to show the Significance of trim in reducing low frequency boom in car passenger compcompartments. The necessary absorption coefficients were measured with an impedance tube.

A principal component least mean square (PC-LMS) adaptive algorithm is described that has considerable benefits for large control systems used to implement feedforward control of single frequency disturbances. The algorithm is a transform domain version of the multichannel filtered-x LMS algorithm. The transformation corresponds to the principal components of the transfer function matrix between the sensors and actuators in a control system at a single frequency. The method is similar to other transform domain LMS algorithms because the transformation can be used to accelerate convergence when the control system is ill-conditioned. This ill-conditioning is due to actuator and sensor placement on a continuous structure. The principal component transformation rotates the control filter coefficient axes to a more convenient coordinate system where (1) independent convergence factors can be used on each coordinate to accelerate convergence, (2) insignificant control coordinates can be eliminated from the controller, and (3) coordinates that require excessive control effort can be eliminated from the controller. The resulting transform domain algorithm has lower computational requirements than the filtered-x LMS algorithm. The formulation of the algorithm given here applies only to single frequency control problems, and computation of the decoupling transforms requires an estimate of the transfer function matrix between control actuators and error sensors at the frequency of interest. The feasibility of the method was demonstrated in real-time noise control experiments involving 48 microphones and 12 control actuators mounted on a closed cylindrical shell. Convergence of the PC-LMS algorithm was more stable than the filtered-x LMS algorithm. In addition, the PC-LMS controller produced more noise reduction with less control effort than the filtered-x LMS controller in several tests. / Ph. D.

The tonal character of the low frequency internal noise in cars is often due to energy transmission through the tyre at the first few eigenfrequencies of the air cavity of the tyre. The first acoustic mode in the air cavity of a typical stationary car tyre is approximately 224 Hz. At this frequency the tyre is comparatively stiff resulting in a high transmission of energy from the road wheel contact to the car body itself. In order to investigate possible means of reducing this effect, the acoustic field inside a tyre is modelled. Theoretically it is found that the pressure inside a tyre and the energy transmission through the tyre to the wheel axle and the car body can be reduced by adding a sound absorbing material inside the tyre. This was confirmed by measurements on stationary as well as rotating tyres with and without added sound absorption. For a rotating tyre there is a split of the natural frequency depending on the rotational speed of the tyre. Measurements in a standard passenger car reveal that the noise level inside the car is rather high in a fairly wide frequency range around 224 Hz at normal velocities. This tonal noise can be reduced by adding sound absorption inside a tyre. Models for the prediction and the reduction of the tonal noise are presented. Measured and predicted results are compared and the agreement is found to be good. It is found that the tonal noise can be reduced by up to 9 dB. The effects of the air cavity resonances on the external noise have also been studied. It is estimated that external tyre noise can be reduced 1 dB by adding a sound absorbing material inside tyres. For a car travelling on a road a strong acoustic field is induced between the floor of the car and the road. The impact of this acoustic field can be reduced by mounting a sound absorbing material underneath the car. It is estimated that the A-weighted sound pressure level close to a running car could be reduced by 3 dB by adding this type sound absorption. It is found that aluminium foam could be a suitable sound absorbing material which could be mounted inside tyres and underneath cars. The acoustic and dynamic properties of various types of aluminium foams are discussed. In particular measurement techniques for determining sound absorption at grazing incidence are investigated. / QC 20100923

This study involves the modeling and optimization of heterogeneous (HG) blankets for improved reduction of the sound transmission through double-panel systems at low frequencies. HG blankets consist of poro-elastic media with small, embedded masses, operating similar to a distributed mass-spring-damper system. Although most traditional poro-elastic materials have failed to effectively reduce low-frequency, radiated sound from structures, HG blankets show significant potential. A design tool predicting the response of a single-bay double panel system (DPS) with, acoustic cavity, HG blanket and radiated field, later a multi-bay DPS with frames, stringers, mounts, and four HG blankets, was developed and experimentally validated using impedance and mobility methods (IMM). A novel impedance matrix formulation for the HG blanket is derived and coupled to the DPS using an assembled matrix approach derived from the IMM. Genetic algorithms coupled with the previously described design tool of the DPS with the HG blanket treatment can optimize HG blanket design. This study presents a comparison of the performance obtained using the genetic algorithm optimization routine and a novel interactive optimization routine based on sequential addition of masses in the blanket. This research offers a detailed analysis of the behavior of the mass inclusions, highlighting controlled stiffness variation of the mass-spring-damper systems inside the HG blanket. A novel, empirical approach to predict the natural frequency of different mass shapes embedded in porous media was derived and experimentally verified for many different types of porous media. In addition, simplifying a model for poro-elastic materials for low frequencies that Biot and Allard originally proposed and implementing basic elastomechanical solutions produce a novel analytical approach to describe the interaction of the mass inclusions with a poro-elastic layer. A full-scale fuselage experiment performed on a Gulfstream section involves using the design tool for the positions of the mass inclusions, and the results of the previously described empirical approach facilitate tuning of the natural frequencies of the mass inclusions to the desired natural frequencies. The presented results indicate that proper tuning of the HG blankets can result in broadband noise reduction below 500Hz with less than 10% added mass. / 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.

No description available.