Method and system to perform energy-extraction based active noise control

A method to provide active noise control to reduce noise and vibration in reverberant acoustic enclosures such as aircraft, vehicles, appliances, instruments, industrial equipment and the like is presented. A continuous-time multi-input multi-output (MIMO) state space mathematical model of the plant is obtained via analytical modeling and system identification. Compensation is designed to render the mathematical model passive in the sense of mathematical system theory. The compensated system is checked to ensure robustness of the passive property of the plant. The check ensures that the passivity is preserved if the mathematical model parameters are perturbed from nominal values. A passivity-based controller is designed and verified using numerical simulations and then tested. The controller is designed so that the resulting closed-loop response shows the desired noise reduction

Active attenuation of propeller blade passage noise

Acoustic measurements are presented to show that active cancellation can be used to achieve significant reduction of blade passage noise in a turboprop cabin. Simultaneous suppression of all blade passage frequencies was attained. The spatial volume over which cancellation occurred, however, is limited. Acoustic intensity maps are presented to show that the acoustic input to the fuselage was sufficiently non-localized so as to require more judicious selection of cancellation speaker location

Development of a Method to Model an Enclosed, Coaxial Carbon Nanotube Speaker with Experimental Validation

Carbon nanotube (CNT) speakers operate on heat as compared to conventional loudspeakers that operate on vibration. CNT speakers are extremely lightweight, stretchable, flexible, and have high operating temperatures. Due to these advantages, CNT speakers are being considered as a viable replacement option for conventional loudspeakers. One such application is automotive exhaust noise control. The goal of this research is to design an enclosed, coaxial CNT speaker and to develop a modeling method to model this speaker using COMSOL Multiphysics. As part of this research, an enclosed, coaxial CNT speaker was designed and manufactured for automotive exhaust noise control. The first prototype was a proof of concept that the design is feasible, and the speaker works. Two additional prototypes have been developed to improve the manufacturing feasibility and performance. The first task undertaken during the modeling method development has been to create COMSOL models that simulated the CNT film temperature oscillation and the corresponding SPL. The simulation results have been compared with a MATLAB model for a planar CNT speaker. In addition, the SPL generated by the coaxial speaker has been compared with the simulated SPL generated by the CNT speaker. In addition, the performance of the coaxial speaker has been simulated in the presence of flow. Generally, a good correlation has been observed between the experimental SPL and simulated SPL. The models can be improved with the future development of improved material properties

Vector magnetometer design study: Analysis of a triaxial fluxgate sensor design demonstrates that all MAGSAT Vector Magnetometer specifications can be met

The design of the vector magnetometer selected for analysis is capable of exceeding the required accuracy of 5 gamma per vector field component. The principal elements that assure this performance level are very low power dissipation triaxial feedback coils surrounding ring core flux-gates and temperature control of the critical components of two-loop feedback electronics. An analysis of the calibration problem points to the need for improved test facilities

Active Control of Sound Transmission Into Three-Dimensional Enclosures

The aim of this dissertation work is to understand active control of sound fields inside a three-dimensional rectangular enclosure into which noise is transmitted through a flexible boundary. To this end, analytical and numerical studies have been conducted. In the modeling efforts, a spherical wave excitation, which is generated by a noise source located in the near field of the flexible panel, is considered. Piezoelectric patches, which are bonded symmetrically to the top and bottom surfaces of the panel, are used as actuators. Microphones located inside and outside the enclosure serve as pressure sensors. The efforts account for panel interactions with both the external sound field and the enclosed sound field, and this feature makes it appealing for model-based active control schemes. The feasibility of implementing two zero spillover schemes for active structural-acoustic control systems has been studied through analysis and experiments. These schemes have been developed to ensure that spillover does not occur outside the control bandwidth. The numerical results are found to be in good agreement with the corresponding experimental observations; attenuations ranging up to 18.1 dB are experimentally obtained for narrowband disturbances and an attenuation of 8.3 dB is obtained for broadband excitation in the frequency range of 40 Hz £ f £ 230 Hz. The following contributions have resulted from this work: i) an analytical model capable of predicting the external pressure fields due to both the noise source and structural?acoustic interactions and that accounts for the general case of spherical wave propagation, ii) development of zero spillover, active structural-acoustic control schemes for controlling three?dimensional sound fields, and iii) a new relaxed zero spillover control scheme to ensure that the controlled response is bounded over the entire frequency range

Optimal feedback control formulation of the active noise cancellation problem : pointwise and distributed

Also issued as Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (p. 152-157).Supported by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. AFOSR-91-0034-C Supported by the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research. N00014-93-1-0686 Supported by Lockheed Sanders, Inc.Kambiz C. Zangi

ACTIVE NOISE CONTROL USING CARBON NANOTUBE THERMOPHONES: CASE STUDY FOR AN AUTOMOTIVE HVAC APPLICATION

The goal of this project was to reduce the overall noise levels emitted by the HVAC components in a vehicle’s cabin. More specifically, the feasibility of achieving this goal using two key technologies was investigated. The first of these technologies, Active Noise Control (ANC), is a noise attenuation technique that relies on destructive interference that “cancels” unwanted noise. Typically used in situations where physical constraints prevent passive attenuation techniques from being used, ANC is known for its high size-to-effectiveness ratio. This benefit cannot be gained without a cost however; the complexity of ANC systems is significantly higher than their passive counterparts. This is due to the signal processing and actuator designs required. These actuators often take the form of moving-coil loudspeakers which, while effective, are often bulky. Because of this they are difficult to “drop in” to an existing system. This is where the second technology comes in. Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Thermophones are solid-state speakers that operate by using rapid heat fluctuations to create sound. Called the “thermoacoustic effect,” (TE) the theory of this operating principle dates to the turn of the 20th century. Useful demonstration of TE did not occur until 2008, however, when researchers first developed the first CNT thermophones. The hallmark characteristics of these transducers are their small size and flexible nature. Compared to traditional loudspeakers they have a much smaller form factor and are more versatile in terms of where they can be placed in a cramped system. The marriage of CNT transducers to ANC technology shows promise in improving the application space and ease of installation of ANC systems. Getting these two to cooperate, however, is not without challenges. A case study for this union is presented here; the application space being the ducted environment of vehicle HVAC systems