Several enhancements that improve the accuracy and robustness of an impedance eduction technique that use an automatic optimizer are presented. These enhancements are then used to launch an intensive investigation into the cause of anomalous behavior that occurs for a small number of test conditions. This anomalous behavior is investigated for both a hardwall insert and a conventional liner. The primary conclusions of the study are that: (1) for the hard wall insert, the anomalies are due to narrow peaks in the objective function, (2) For the conventional liner, the anomalies are due to the presence of an extremely flat objective function, and (3) the anomalies appear to be triggered by inconsistencies between the duct propagation model and the measured data. At high frequencies, the duct propagation model may need to include the effects of higher-order duct modes, whereas at low frequencies, the effects of the mean boundary layer may have to be included
