Analytical investigation of synchrophasing as a means of reducing aircraft interior noise

The noise control characteristics of synchrophasing are investigated using a simplified model of an aircraft fuselage. The analysis presented here includes directivity effects of the noise sources and solves in closed form the coupled motion between the interior and exterior acoustic fields and the shell vibrational response. The variation in sound pressure level at various locations inside the shell is studied for various synchrophase angles as well as the shell vibrational response and input power flow in order to uncover the principal mechanisms behind the transmission phenomena

An improved source model for aircraft interior noise studies

There is concern that advanced turboprop engines currently being developed may produce excessive aircraft cabin noise levels. This concern has stimulated renewed interest in developing aircraft interior noise reduction methods that do not significantly increase take off weight. An existing analytical model for noise transmission into aircraft cabins was utilized to investigate the behavior of an improved propeller source model for use in aircraft interior noise studies. The new source model, a virtually rotating dipole, is shown to adequately match measured fuselage sound pressure distributions, including the correct phase relationships, for published data. The virtually rotating dipole is used to study the sensitivity of synchrophasing effectiveness to the fuselage sound pressure trace velocity distribution. Results of calculations are presented which reveal the importance of correctly modeling the surface pressure phase relations in synchrophasing and other aircraft interior noise studies

Deer reduce habitat quality for a woodland songbird: evidence from settlement patterns, demographic parameters, and body condition.

Understanding avian responses to ungulate-induced habitat modification is important because deer populations are increasing across much of temperate Europe and North America. Our experimental study examined whether habitat quality for Blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla) in young woodland in eastern England was affected by deer, by comparing Blackcap behavior, abundance, and condition between paired plots (half of each pair protected from deer). The vegetation in each pair of plots was the same age. The Blackcap is an ideal model species for testing effects of deer on avian habitat quality because it is dependent on dense understory vegetation and is abundant throughout much of Europe. We compared timing of settlement, abundance, age structure (second-year vs. after-second-year), and phenotypic quality (measured as a body condition index, body mass divided by tarsus length) between experimental and control plots. We used point counts to examine Blackcap distribution, and standardized mist netting to collect demographic and biometric data. Incidence of singing Blackcaps was higher in nonbrowsed than in browsed plots, and singing males were recorded in nonbrowsed plots earlier in the season, indicating earlier and preferential territory establishment. Most Blackcaps, both males and females, were captured in vegetation prior to canopy closure (2–4 years of regrowth). Body condition was superior for male Blackcaps captured in nonbrowsed plots; for second-year males this was most marked in vegetation prior to canopy closure. We conclude that deer browsing in young woodland can alter habitat quality for understory-dependent species, with potential consequences for individual fitness and population productivity beyond the more obvious effects on population density

Energy Projects in Milton Keynes: Energy Consultative Unit Progress Report 1976-1981

The Energy Consultative Unit was a joint Open University/MKDC body set up by Professor Jake Chapman, founder of the OU Energy Research Group. This report describes the work carried out on energy-related projects in Milton Keynes over the period 1976-1981, many of them involving the Open University. After a short explanation of how energy is used in the UK, the report introduces the Energy Consultative Unit projects and summarises the main conclusions drawn from the Unit's work. It then describes the projects on which the Unit has worked and summarises other energy projects under way in the new city. It does not go into the projects in detail, but there are a number of technical reports available for people who want to study them in more depth, and these are listed in the back of the report. The projects represent the work of a considerable number of people and a list of acknowledgements, indicating who should be contacted for further information, is also set out at the back of the report

Isomorphisms of lattices of Bures-closed bimodules over Cartan MASAs

For i = 1; 2, let (Mi;Di) be pairs consisting of a Cartan MASA Di in a von Neumann algebra Mi, let atom(Di) be the set of atoms of Di, and let Si be the lattice of Bures-closed Di bimodules in Mi. We show that when Mi have separable preduals, there is a lattice isomorphism between S1 and S2 if and only if the sets f(Q1;Q2) 2 atom(Di) atom(Di) : Q1MiQ2 6= (0)g have the same cardinality. In particular, when Di is nonatomic, Si is isomorphic to the lattice of projections in L1([0; 1];m) where m is Lebesgue measure, regardless of the isomorphism classes of M1 and M2

The effects of day and night temperature on Chrysanthemum morifolium: investigating the safe limits for temperature integration

The impact of day and night temperatures on pot chrysanthemum (cultivars ‘Covington’ and ‘Irvine’) was assessed by exposing cuttings, stuck in weeks 39, 44, and 49, to different temperature regimes in short-days. Glasshouse heating setpoints of 12°, 15°, 18°, and 21°C, were used during the day, with venting at 2°C above these set-points. Night temperatures were then automatically manipulated to ensure that all of the treatments achieved similar mean diurnal temperatures. Plants were grown according to commercial practice and the experiment was repeated over 2 years. Increasing the day temperature from approx. 19°C to 21°C, and compensating by reducing the night temperature, did not have a significant impact on flowering time, although plant height was increased.This suggests that a temperature integration strategy which involves higher vent temperatures, and exploiting solar gain to give higher than normal day temperatures, should have minimal impact on crop scheduling. However, lowering the day-time temperature to approx. 16°C, and compensating with a warmer night, delayed flowering by up to 2 weeks. Therefore, a strategy whereby, in Winter, more heat is added at night under a thermally-efficient blackout screen may result in flowering delays.Transfers between the temperature regimes showed that the flowering delays were proportional to the amount of time spent in a low day-time temperature regime. Plants flowered at the same time, irrespective of whether they were transferred on a 1-, 2-, or 4-week cycle

Bearing detection in the presence of two sources of varying coherence using the complex cepstrum

The effect of the presence of two acoustic sources (one, the primary, whose location is to be detected) of varying coherence on a cepstral bearing finding procedure is experimentally studied. The coherence between the acoustic sources was altered by adding random noise of various SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) to the input signal of the primary source; the same base signal being fed to both sources. The results demonstrate that, when block liftering is used, the primary source bearing is reliably estimated for coherences as low as gamma sup 2 greater than or approx equal to 0.5. The results also imply that background noise (unreflected) of SNR greater than or approx equal to 10 dB will not markedly affect the accuracy of the bearing estimation algorithm

An experimental investigation of the interior noise control effects of propeller synchrophasing

A simplified cylindrical model of an aircraft fuselage is used to investigate the mechanisms of interior noise suppression using synchrophasing techniques. This investigation allows isolation of important parameters to define the characteristics of synchrophasing. The optimum synchrophase angle for maximum noise reduction is found for several interior microphone positions with pure tone source excitation. Noise reductions of up to 30 dB are shown for some microphone positions, however, overall reductions are less. A computer algorithm is developed to decompose the cylinder vibration into modal components over a wide range of synchrophase angles. The circumferential modal response of the shell vibration is shown to govern the transmission of sound into the cylinder rather than localized transmission. As well as investigating synchrophasing, the interior sound field due to sources typical of propellers has been measured and discussed