Os objetivos deste trabalho foram verificar a influência das taxas de aplicação superficial das zonas de separação e de contato e da concentração de micro bolhas de ar na eficiência da remoção de partículas em unidades de flotação aplicadas ao tratamento de água para abastecimento público e, caracterizar a estrutura de escoamento no interior da zona de separação, com a utilização de uma planta piloto de flotação por ar dissolvido. Os trabalhos relativos à pesquisa foram divididos em duas etapas: a primeira delas contemplou a operação de unidade piloto alimentada com água sintética, utilizando três valores de taxa de aplicação superficial na zona de separação associadas a duas taxas de aplicação superficial na zona de contato, cada qual com três concentrações de ar fornecido à flotação. Foram mantidos fixos os parâmetros: tempo de contato na zona de contato, tempo de floculação, gradiente médio de floculação e velocidade cross-flow. Os resultados desta etapa foram monitorados com base na eficiência de remoção de cor e turbidez. As maiores eficiências de remoção, 87,5% para turbidez e 96,8% de cor aparente foram obtidos para as menores taxas de aplicação superficial nas zonas de contato e separação estudadas, associadas à concentração de ar de 4,90 g/\'CM POT.3\' de água. Este, entre outros resultados, levou à conclusão de que tal concentração de ar fornecida à flotação forneceu sempre os menores residuais de cor e turbidez nas condições investigadas. Quanto à taxa de aplicação superficial na zona de contato, 136,3 m/h resultou em maiores eficiências de clarificação, sendo que o aumento para 172,8 m/h causou ligeira queda na eficiência. Finalmente, quanto à taxa de aplicação superficial na zona de separação, a menor taxa (9,8 m/h) foi aquela onde as maiores eficiências de clarificação foram obtidas, as quais decresceram à medida que a taxa foi aumentada. Na segunda etapa utilizou-se a sonda microADV na caracterização do escoamento no interior da zona de separação. Foram realizadas caracterizações para as três concentrações de ar fornecidas para a flotação estudadas na etapa I, mantendo-se fixos a taxa de aplicação superficial e o tempo na zona de contato (136,3 m/h e 53 s, respectivamente), a taxa de aplicação superficial na zona de separação (12,3 m/h), a vazão de entrada e a velocidade cross-flow, conforme a etapa I. Para as três condições estudadas, adotou-se uma malha virtual de coleta de dados de duas dimensões, composta por 98 pontos igualmente espaçados, sendo 14 na altura e 7 paralelos ao comprimento. O tempo de coleta de dados em cada ponto foi de 2 min com uma freqüência de amostragem de 50 Hz. Os vetores de velocidade resultantes foram plotados em esquemas ilustrativos, afim de se comparar os três perfis obtidos. Observou-se em todos os casos um fluxo em curto-circuito na região superior da zona de separação e logo abaixo desta, um fluxo descendente no sentido dos coletores ao fundo da unidade. Quando comparadas, apenas pequenas diferenças quanto à espessura da região de curto circuito superior foram verificadas entre as três situações abordadas, as quais não explicam as diferentes eficiências de clarificação obtidas na etapa I da pesquisa, relacionadas à concentração de ar fornecida à flotação. / The objectives of this study were to determine the influence of hydraulic surface loading of contact and separation zones and of the air micro bubbles concentration in the particle removal efficiency in flotation units applied to water treatment for public supply and also characterize the flow structure into the separation zone. The works were divided into two stages: the first included the operation of the pilot plant fed with synthetic water, using three values of hydraulic surface loadings in the separation zone associated with two hydraulic surface loadings in the superficial zone of contact, each one with three concentrations of air supplied to the flotation. Were kept fixed parameters: contact time in the contact zone, flocculation time, mean flocculation gradient and cross-flow velocity. The results of this step were monitored based on the removal efficiency of color and turbidity. The higher removal efficiencies, 87.5% of turbidity and 96.8% apparent color were obtained for the lower hydraulic surface loading of contact and separation zones studied, associated with air concentration of 4.90 g/\'CM POT.3\' of water. This, among other results, led to the conclusion that this air supplied to the flotation concentration always provided the lowest residual color and turbidity values, under the conditions investigated. As for the hydraulic surface loading in the contact zone, 136.3 m/h resulted in higher efficiencies for clarification and when increasing to 172.8 m/h slight drop in efficiency was caused. Finally, regarding separation zone hydraulic surface loading, the lowest rate (9.8 m/h) was the one in which the highest efficiencies of clarification were obtained, which decreased, as the hydraulic surface loading was increased. In the second step, the probe microADV was used to characterize the flow inside the separation zone. Characterizations were carried out for the three air concentrations supplied to the flotation studied on the first step, fixing contact zone hydraulic surface loading and time (136.3 m/h and 53 s, respectively), the separation zone hydraulic surface loading (12.3 m/h), the input flow and cross-flow velocity as step I. For the three conditions studied, we adopted a of two-dimensional virtual data collection grid with 98 equally spaced points, 14 in height and 7 parallel to the length. The data collection time at each point was 2 min with a sampling frequency of 50 Hz. The resulting velocity vectors were plotted on illustrative diagrams in order to compare the three profiles obtained. A short-circuit flow in the upper part of the separation zone and below this, a downward flow toward the bottom of the collector unit were observed in all cases. In comparison, only small differences in the thickness of the upper region of short circuit were observed between the three situations discussed, which do not explain the different efficiencies of clarification obtained in the first step of the research related to the air bubble concentration.

\"Ver o corpo humano por dentro\" sem a necessidade de intervenção cirurgica é objetivo que motivou a criação de diversos instrumentos como eletrocardiogramas, eletroencefalogramas, equipamentos de ressonância magnética e raio-X. Através daavaliação de imagens ou resultados numéricos, pode-se detectar patologias nos primeiros estágios, permitindo uma ação decisiva de especialistas médicos na cura destas. Especialistas da fala normalmente empregam instrumentos comovideolaringoscopia e videoestroboscopia para avaliar qualitativamente o comportamento da laringe e pregas vocais. Comprendendo que a voz transmite informações sobre alterações orgânicas ou funcionais nas estruturas de vocalização, este trabalhoapresenta um conjunto de medidas acústicas neste sinal que evidenciam alterações na periodicidade do movimento das cordas vocais e quantidade de ruído turbulento que atravessa a glote. A partir de avaliação estatística da capacidadedescriminatória destes índices acústicos e empregando-se redes neurais artificiais, define-se um método automático para identificação probabilística das patologias que afetam as estruturas da laringe. / \"To see the inside of the human body\" without the necessity of surgical intervention is the objective that motivates the conception of several instruments like electrocardiogram, electroencephalongram, magnetic resonance and X-ray equipments. Through the image analysis or numerical results, it is possible to identify pathologies, allowing a decisive action of physician specialists in cure of these. Voice specialists, normally, use instruments as videolaryngoscopy and videostroboscopy to assess the vocal folds and larynx comportment, qualitatively. Understanding that the voice transmits information upon functional or organic alterations in vocalization structures, this work presents a set of acoustic measurements, based on this signal, that evidences alterations on vocal folds movement periodicity and quantify of turbulent noise throught the glottis. From the statistic evaluation of discriminatory capacity of these acoustic indexes and using artificial neural networks, it defines an automatic method for the probabilistic identification of pathologies that affect the laryngeal structures.

Os objetivos deste trabalho foram verificar a influência das taxas de aplicação superficial das zonas de separação e de contato e da concentração de micro bolhas de ar na eficiência da remoção de partículas em unidades de flotação aplicadas ao tratamento de água para abastecimento público e, caracterizar a estrutura de escoamento no interior da zona de separação, com a utilização de uma planta piloto de flotação por ar dissolvido. Os trabalhos relativos à pesquisa foram divididos em duas etapas: a primeira delas contemplou a operação de unidade piloto alimentada com água sintética, utilizando três valores de taxa de aplicação superficial na zona de separação associadas a duas taxas de aplicação superficial na zona de contato, cada qual com três concentrações de ar fornecido à flotação. Foram mantidos fixos os parâmetros: tempo de contato na zona de contato, tempo de floculação, gradiente médio de floculação e velocidade cross-flow. Os resultados desta etapa foram monitorados com base na eficiência de remoção de cor e turbidez. As maiores eficiências de remoção, 87,5% para turbidez e 96,8% de cor aparente foram obtidos para as menores taxas de aplicação superficial nas zonas de contato e separação estudadas, associadas à concentração de ar de 4,90 g/\'CM POT.3\' de água. Este, entre outros resultados, levou à conclusão de que tal concentração de ar fornecida à flotação forneceu sempre os menores residuais de cor e turbidez nas condições investigadas. Quanto à taxa de aplicação superficial na zona de contato, 136,3 m/h resultou em maiores eficiências de clarificação, sendo que o aumento para 172,8 m/h causou ligeira queda na eficiência. Finalmente, quanto à taxa de aplicação superficial na zona de separação, a menor taxa (9,8 m/h) foi aquela onde as maiores eficiências de clarificação foram obtidas, as quais decresceram à medida que a taxa foi aumentada. Na segunda etapa utilizou-se a sonda microADV na caracterização do escoamento no interior da zona de separação. Foram realizadas caracterizações para as três concentrações de ar fornecidas para a flotação estudadas na etapa I, mantendo-se fixos a taxa de aplicação superficial e o tempo na zona de contato (136,3 m/h e 53 s, respectivamente), a taxa de aplicação superficial na zona de separação (12,3 m/h), a vazão de entrada e a velocidade cross-flow, conforme a etapa I. Para as três condições estudadas, adotou-se uma malha virtual de coleta de dados de duas dimensões, composta por 98 pontos igualmente espaçados, sendo 14 na altura e 7 paralelos ao comprimento. O tempo de coleta de dados em cada ponto foi de 2 min com uma freqüência de amostragem de 50 Hz. Os vetores de velocidade resultantes foram plotados em esquemas ilustrativos, afim de se comparar os três perfis obtidos. Observou-se em todos os casos um fluxo em curto-circuito na região superior da zona de separação e logo abaixo desta, um fluxo descendente no sentido dos coletores ao fundo da unidade. Quando comparadas, apenas pequenas diferenças quanto à espessura da região de curto circuito superior foram verificadas entre as três situações abordadas, as quais não explicam as diferentes eficiências de clarificação obtidas na etapa I da pesquisa, relacionadas à concentração de ar fornecida à flotação. / The objectives of this study were to determine the influence of hydraulic surface loading of contact and separation zones and of the air micro bubbles concentration in the particle removal efficiency in flotation units applied to water treatment for public supply and also characterize the flow structure into the separation zone. The works were divided into two stages: the first included the operation of the pilot plant fed with synthetic water, using three values of hydraulic surface loadings in the separation zone associated with two hydraulic surface loadings in the superficial zone of contact, each one with three concentrations of air supplied to the flotation. Were kept fixed parameters: contact time in the contact zone, flocculation time, mean flocculation gradient and cross-flow velocity. The results of this step were monitored based on the removal efficiency of color and turbidity. The higher removal efficiencies, 87.5% of turbidity and 96.8% apparent color were obtained for the lower hydraulic surface loading of contact and separation zones studied, associated with air concentration of 4.90 g/\'CM POT.3\' of water. This, among other results, led to the conclusion that this air supplied to the flotation concentration always provided the lowest residual color and turbidity values, under the conditions investigated. As for the hydraulic surface loading in the contact zone, 136.3 m/h resulted in higher efficiencies for clarification and when increasing to 172.8 m/h slight drop in efficiency was caused. Finally, regarding separation zone hydraulic surface loading, the lowest rate (9.8 m/h) was the one in which the highest efficiencies of clarification were obtained, which decreased, as the hydraulic surface loading was increased. In the second step, the probe microADV was used to characterize the flow inside the separation zone. Characterizations were carried out for the three air concentrations supplied to the flotation studied on the first step, fixing contact zone hydraulic surface loading and time (136.3 m/h and 53 s, respectively), the separation zone hydraulic surface loading (12.3 m/h), the input flow and cross-flow velocity as step I. For the three conditions studied, we adopted a of two-dimensional virtual data collection grid with 98 equally spaced points, 14 in height and 7 parallel to the length. The data collection time at each point was 2 min with a sampling frequency of 50 Hz. The resulting velocity vectors were plotted on illustrative diagrams in order to compare the three profiles obtained. A short-circuit flow in the upper part of the separation zone and below this, a downward flow toward the bottom of the collector unit were observed in all cases. In comparison, only small differences in the thickness of the upper region of short circuit were observed between the three situations discussed, which do not explain the different efficiencies of clarification obtained in the first step of the research related to the air bubble concentration.

Lorsque des ondes acoustiques de surface rayonnent dans des fluides, elles provoquent deux effets non linéaires : la pression de radiation et le streaming acoustique. Ces deux effets ont trouvé un grand nombre d’applications pour la microfluidique digitale, la manipulation sans contact et le tri cellulaire. Néanmoins, ces systèmes se heurtent à deux limites. D’une part, chaque application requiert une onde acoustique spécifique : il n’existe pas de dispositif multifonction à ce jour. D’autre part, l’exploration des fonctionnalités offertes par les ondes de surface les plus simples (ondes planes, ondes focalisées) n’a pas permis de réaliser des pinces sélectives permettant de manipuler individuellement des particules ou cellules indépendamment de leurs voisines.Dans une première partie de la thèse, nous développons deux méthodologies pour synthétiser des champs complexes d’ondes de surface. La première méthode utilise un réseau de 32 peignes interdigités contrôlé par la technique du filtre inverse pour générer des champs sur demande. La seconde résout un problème inverse afin de concevoir un transducteur holographique générant spécifiquement le champ demandé. Dans la seconde partie de la thèse, nous utilisons le filtre inverse pour (i) réaliser un laboratoire sur puce multifonction et (ii) étudier le potentiel d’ondes de surface particulières appelées ondes de surface tourbillonnaires. Ces ondes permettent une manipulation sélective et sans contact d’objets microscopiques. Nous terminons la thèse en équipant un microscope d’un transducteur holographique de vortex acoustiques afin de réaliser une manipulation sélective et sans contact de cellules. / When surface acoustic waves radiate in nearby fluids, they trigger two nonlinear effects: acoustic radiation pressure and acoustic streaming. These two effects find numerous applications for digital microfluidics, contactless manipulation and biological cell sorting. Nonetheless, these systems face two limitations. On the one hand, each application requires a specific acoustic wave: there is no multifunction device so far. On the other hand, search for functionalities offered by simple surface acoustic waves (plane and focused waves) has failed to provide a selective tweezers able to manipulate individual particles or cells independently of their neighbors. In the first part of this thesis, we develop two methods to synthesize complex surface acoustic wave fields. The first one employs an array of 32 interdigitated transducers controlled by the inverse filter to generate arbitrary fields on demand. The second method solves an inverse problem to design a holographic transducer to generate a predefined field. In the second part of the thesis, we use the inverse filter to (i) implement a multifunction lab on a chip and (ii) investigate the potentialities of a special type of surface acoustic waves called swirling surface waves. These waves enable a selective and contactless manipulation of microscopic objects. We conclude the thesis by integrating a holographic acoustical vortex transducer on a microscope in order to selectively manipulate biological cells without contact.

Animals detect, recognize and localize relevant objects in noisy, multi-source environments. Female crickets locate potential mates in choruses of simultaneously calling males using acoustic signals, a behaviour termed phonotaxis. The mechanisms underlying cricket phonotaxis are now understood across multiple levels: biophysical, neurobiological and behavioural. Phonotaxis has, however, rarely been tested in the complex real-world acoustic environments and no attempts have been made to predict acoustic orientation behaviour in these conditions despite our extensive understanding of its underlying mechanisms. In this thesis, I first characterized the acoustic environments faced by female crickets of the species Plebeiogryllus guttiventris in the field. Phonotaxis behaviour of females was then characterized under laboratory conditions using two sound sources. The data obtained were used to develop a simulation that predicted this behaviour. The predictions of the simulation were then tested against the phonotaxis behaviour of females in realistic, multi-source conditions in the field. My field studies of male behaviour showed that males of this species produced complex and variable songs in choruses where multiple males called simultaneously. The acoustic ranges of males in these choruses overlapped extensively and females performing phonotaxis in such choruses would hear multiple males simultaneously. The acoustic interactions of simultaneously calling males were also characterized for their timing relationships with each other and the changes they made to the temporal patterns of their songs. Males did not either synchronise or alternate their chirps, however they made changes to the temporal patterns of song in a way that is likely to make them more attractive to females. I then characterized the closed-loop walking phonotaxis behaviour of P. guttiventris females in the presence of two active sound sources playing conspecific song. Both the baseline and relative SPLs of the two speakers were systematically varied and female phonotactic paths were obtained. Females were found to preferentially approach louder songs. Several aspects of this behaviour were characterized, in particular orientation ability and motor behaviour under varied conditions of stimulus intensity. A stochastic simulation of closed-loop walking phonotaxis behaviour was developed using both current understanding of field cricket physiology and my data on closed-loop walking phonotaxis. The simulation was demonstrated to both qualitatively and quantitatively recapture female behaviour. It was also able to qualitatively recapture female behaviour in two previously published classical experiments in which the hearing of female crickets was disrupted. Female phonotaxis was then tested under real-world multi-source conditions. The behaviour of real females was compared to the predictions of the simulation. The simulation was found to recapture both female preference and phonotactic path forms at the population level. To my knowledge, this is the first study to both examine and successfully predict phonotaxis behaviour in complex real-world acoustic conditions.

The hearing and understanding problems of the people with high frequency hearing loss are covered within the scope of this thesis. For overcoming these problems, two main studies, developing hearing loss simulation (HLS) and applying new frequency lowering methods (FLMs) were carried out. HLS was developed with the suprathreshold effects and new FLMs were applied with different combinations of the FLMs. For evaluating the studies, modified rhyme test (MRT) and speech intelligibility index (SII) were used as subjective and objective measures, respectively. Before both of the studies, offline studies were carried out for specifying the significant parameters and values for using in MRT. For the HLS study, twelve hearing impaired subjects listened to unprocessed sounds and thirty six normal hearing subjects listened to simulated sounds. In the evaluation of the HLS, both measures gave similar and consistent results for both unprocessed and simulated sounds. In FLMs study, hearing impaired subjects were simulated and normal hearing subjects listened to frequency lowered sounds with the specified methods, parameters and values. All FLMs were compared with the standard method of hearing aids (amplification) for five different noisy environments. FLMs satisfied 83% success of higher speech intelligibility improvement than amplification in all cases. As a conclusion, the necessity of using subject-specific FLMs was shown to achieve higher intelligibility than with amplification only. Accordingly, a methodology for selection of the values of parameters for different noisy environments and for different audiograms was developed.

Flattened Brazilian disc and modified ring test methods are attractive methods being simpler compared to the other mode I fracture toughness testing methods on rock cores. The aim of this study is to improve these simple methods to yield fracture toughness values that are close to the ones determined by the suggested methods. ABAQUS finite element program was used to determine stress intensity factors of models with various dimensions. Comparing fracture toughness to the results obtained by semicircular bending method tests (0.94 MPa&amp / #8730 / m for andesite and 0.56 MPa&amp / #8730 / m for marble) and the cracked chevron notched Brazilian disc method tests (1.45 MPa&amp / #8730 / m for andesite and 1.08 MPa&amp / #8730 / m for marble), proper geometrical parameters were investigated by changing diameter, central-hole diameter, and loading angle of Ankara andesite and Afyon marble specimens. Semicircular bending method results were lower than the cracked chevron notched Brazilian disc method results. With flattened Brazilian disc method, the closest results (1.45 MPa&amp / #8730 / m for andesite and 1.12 MPa&amp / #8730 / m for marble) to the suggested method was obtained by 54 mm diameter discs with loading angles between 32.5&deg / and 38.0&deg / and with thicknesses between 19 mm and 34 mm. With modified ring test on andesite, the closest results to the suggested method was obtained by 75 mm diameter discs with 8 mm central-hole diameter and 25&deg / loading angle (1.47 MPa&amp / #8730 / m for andesite and 1.07 MPa&amp / #8730 / m for marble), and with 14 mm central-hole diameter and 16&deg / loading angle (1.50 MPa&amp / #8730 / m for andesite and 1.05 MPa&amp / #8730 / m for marble).

Acoustic design of shopping malls which have become very popular in recent years, has gained importance and it has been considered as an integral part of the design &ndash / construction and life cycle treatment of such complex &ndash / functional buildings. In this study, acoustic qualities of shopping malls are to be inquired by focusing on circulation areas and atrium spaces where noise is one of major disturbances. In this context, first taxonomy of shopping malls regarding their geometrical forms is to be proposed together with plan layouts, construction materials and spatial organizations. Then some of these malls in representing major characteristics of the each class in the taxonomy are to be acoustically analyzed and compared with standards by aiming to provide some guiding principles for acoustical design of such spaces.

This thesis endeavors towards developing various concepts employed in analysis and design of acoustic filters for varied applications ranging from combination mufflers for automobiles to complex networks of gas carrying ducts to multiply connected complex automotive silencing devices to the noise control coatings for underwater applications. A two-dimensional wave modeling approach has been proposed to evaluate sound attenuation characteristics of dissipative mufflers of finite length with/without extended inlet and outlet tubes including very large mufflers. The correctness of the method has been validated through comparison with experimental results from literature. Two other frequently used approximate schemes have been discussed briefly with reference to the available literature. These three approaches have then been weighed against each other to show the effectiveness and limitations of each one. A thorough comparison study has been performed to investigate each one’s extent of applicability. A parametric study with different parameters suggests some useful design guidelines that can be put to use while designing such mufflers. Benefits and drawbacks of reactive and dissipative mufflers have been discussed with an intention of striking a compromise between them to achieve a better transmission quality over a broad frequency range. This has been accomplished by combining these two types of mufflers/filters explicitly. These combination mufflers are analyzed using a transfer matrix based approach by extending the aforesaid concept of two-dimensional wave modeling for finite dissipative ducts. The present approach has been used to analyze axi-symmetric circular lined plenum chambers also. The effectiveness of the bulk reaction assumption to model absorptive lining is illustrated. A parametric study has been carried out to investigate the effects of different thicknesses and placements of the absorptive lining. The contributions of reflective and absorptive portion of the combination mufflerto overall attenuation performance have been investigated from the designer’s point of view A generalized algorithm has been developed for studying the plane sound wave propa- gation in a system of interconnected rigid-walled acoustic filter elements. Interconnection between various elements is represented by a connectivity matrix. Equations of volume velocity continuity and pressure equilibrium at the interconnections are generated using this connectivity matrix and are solved using the Gauss-Jordan elimination scheme to get the overall transfer matrix of the system. The algorithm used for generalized labeling of the network and computation of Transmission Loss has also been discussed. The algorithm has been applied to investigate a multiply connected automobile mufflers as a network of acoustic elements which guides the way to a specialized application discussed next. Results for some configurations have been compared with those from the FEM analysis and experiments. A parametric study with respect to some geometric variables is carried out. The acoustical similarity between apparently different networks is discussed. The approach is flexible to incorporate any other acoustic elements, provided the acoustic variables at the junctions of the element can be related by a transfer matrix a priori. Commercial automotive mufflers are often too complex to be broken into a cascade of one dimensional elements with predetermined transfer matrices. The one dimensional (1-D) scheme presented here is based on an algorithm that uses user friendly visual volume elements to generate the system equations which are then solved using a Gauss-Jordan elimination scheme to derive the overall transfer matrix of the muffler. This work attempts and succeeds to a great extent in exploiting the speed of the one dimensional analysis with the flexibility, generality and user friendliness of three dimensional analysis using geometric modeling. A code based on the developed algorithm has been employed to demonstrate the generality of the proposed method in analyzing commercial muffers by considering three very diverse classes of mufflers with different kinds of combinations of reactive, perforated and absorptive elements. Though the examples presented in the thesis are not very complex for they are meant to be just representative cases of certain classes of mufflers, yet the algorithm can handle a large domain of commercial mufflers of high degree of complexity. Results from the present algorithm have been validated through comparisons with both the analytical and the more general, three-dimensional FEM based results. The forte of the proposed method is its power to construct the system matrix consistent with the boundary conditions from the geometrical model to evaluate the four pole parameters of the entire muffer and thence its transmission loss,etc. Thus, the algorithm can be used in conjunction with the transfer matrix based muffler programs to analyze the entire exhaust system of an automobile. A different kind of acoustic filter than the above mentioned cases is then taken up for investigation. These refer to the specialized underwater acoustic filters laid as linings on submerged bodies. These kind of underwater noise control linings have three different types of objectives, namely, Echo Reduction, Transmission Reduction (TL maximization) and a combination thereof. These coatings have been shown to be behaving very differently with different shape, size and number of air channels present in the layer. In this regard, a finite element model based methodology has been followed. An hybrid type finite element based on the Pian and Tong formulation has been modified and used so as to make the computational efforts less demanding as compared to the original one. The developed finite element has been shown to be immune to the difficulties that arise due to the near incompressible characteristics of the viscoelastic materials used and the high distortion of the elements of the FE mesh. The adequacy of this formulation has been shown by comparing its results with the analytical, FE based, and experimental results. Then, this methodology has been used to analyze and generate design curves to control various geometrical parameters for proper designing of these linings. Different unit cell representations for different types of distributions of air cavities on the linings have been discussed. Four different types of layers have been introduced and analyzed to address different objectives mentioned above. They have been termed as the Anechoic layer, Insulation layer and Combination Layer of coupled and decoupled type in this thesis. The first two layers have been designed to achieve very dissimilar characteristics and the next two layers have been designed to balance their disparities. A thorough parametric study has been carried out on the geometrical parameters of all the layers to come up with the design guidelines. For anechoic and the insulation layers, different distributions have been analyzed with different unit cell geometries and their usability in specific situations has been outlined. Effect of static pressure has also been studied by using an approximate finite element method. This method can be used to simulate deep-sea testing environment.

Noise control in the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems is one of the critical design parameters in measuring the occupant comfort. The noise generated by air-handling units propagates through the ducts in the axial as well as transverse direction. Noise radiated in the transverse direction from the duct walls excited by the internal sound field is called the breakout noise. An analytical formulation has been developed in this thesis in order to predict the breakout noise by incorporating three-dimensional effects along with the acoustical and structural wave coupling phenomena. The first step in the breakout noise prediction is to calculate the interior acoustic response and flexural vibration displacement of the compliant walls. Dynamic interaction between the internal acoustic subsystem and flexible structural subsystem has been expressed in terms of the modal characteristics of the uncoupled response of the acoustic and structural sub-systems. Solutions of the inhomogeneous wave equation are rearranged in terms of impedance and mobility, and the equations describing the complete system are expressed in terms of matrices, which result in a compact matrix formulation. Examples of the formulation are a rectangular cavity with one flexible wall and a rectangular cavity with four-flexible walls. The formulation is modified to incorporate complex boundary conditions by means of appropriate Green’s functions. It is implemented for flexible wall duct using the modified cavity Green’s function. Another objective of the present investigation is to understand the coupling phenomenon and its effect on the compliant wall vibration displacement. The developed three-dimensional analytical analysis of the breakout noise is convenient to implement on the computer, and also to extend the sub-system level model to the system level model in order to analyze a complex acoustic-structural system for the breakout noise problem. The extent of coupling is calculated using a transfer factor based on the uncoupled natural frequencies of the acoustic and structural subsystems. It is observed from the free vibration analysis that a coupling between the cavity and the flexible panel exists in the vicinity of an uncoupled acoustic natural frequency. If a strong coupling occurs between an acoustic mode and a panel mode, then damping of structural subsystem would control it. The cavity volume changes stiffness of the panel, which in turn affects noise radiation in the stiffness-controlled region. The second step is to calculate the sound power radiated from complaint wall. The wall vibration velocity is a linear combination of the uncoupled flexural modes of the structural subsystem. It is substituted into the Rayleigh integral and Kirchhoff– Helmholtz (KH) integral formulation to predict the sound pressure radiated by the vibrating duct wall. The radiated sound power can be obtained by integrating the acoustic intensity over the surface of the flexible duct wall making use of appropriate expressions for radiation impedance. The radiation impedance terms involve a quadruple integral. Evaluation of this integral is quite complex and poses formidable computational challenges. These have been overcome by means of a co-ordinate transformation. Sound power radiation from flexible walls of the plenum and duct walls has been calculated using an equivalent plate model. Analytical results are corroborated with numerical models. The second part of thesis deals with a one-dimensional model to predict the breakout noise from a thin rectangular duct with different end conditions like anechoic termination, rigid-end termination, and the open-end termination. This model incorporates acoustic reflection effects in the duct internal sound field by using standing wave pattern by means of the transfer matrix approach. A one-dimensional prediction method based on the four-pole parameters has been developed to evaluate the lagged duct performance in terms of the breakout noise reduction. Radiation impedance of a duct is calculated by three different methods: (i) finite line source model (ii) finite cylinder model, and (iii) equivalent plate model based on fundamental bending mode of the duct. It is observed that the proposed model that uses the equivalent plate model for the lagged duct and the line source model for the bare duct is appropriate to predict the transverse insertion loss of the lagging, particularly at the lower frequencies that are of primary interest for reducing the breakout noise of rectangular ducts. The bare duct breakout noise results are compared with those of the corresponding 3-D analytical models. It shows that the one-dimensional model captures the overall mean pattern of breakout noise very well. The third part of the thesis examines the internal acoustic field and thence the transmission loss (TL) of a rectangular expansion chamber, the inlet and outlet of which are situated at arbitrary locations of the chamber; i.e., the sidewall or the face of the chamber. The four-pole parameters have been expressed in terms of an appropriate Green’s function of a rectangular cavity with homogeneous boundary conditions. A transfer matrix formulation has been developed for the yielding-wall rectangular chambers by considering structural-acoustic coupling. It may be combined readily with the transfer matrices of the other constituent elements upstream and downstream in order to compute the overall transmission loss or insertion loss. Wherever applicable, parametric studies have been conducted to evolve the design guidelines for minimizing the breakout noise from the HVAC ducts, plenums and cavities.