Error microphone location study for an eight-channel ANC system in free space

Abstract

© 25th International Congress on Sound and Vibration 2018, ICSV 2018: Hiroshima Calling. All rights reserved. The location of error microphones is one key factor that determines the performance of a multichannel active noise control (ANC) system in terms of global sound power reduction when the number and the location of secondary sources are fixed. In a single channel ANC system, the optimal error microphone location is on a line that is nearly perpendicular to the secondary and primary source axis and closer to the secondary source. This paper investigates the optimal location of the error microphones in an 8-channel ANC system in free space. It is demonstrated that good noise reduction performance can be achieved by placing the error microphones between the primary source and secondary sources and closer to the secondary sources in the low frequency range. Experiments conducted on a gearbox for low frequency noise control show that the averaged sound level reduction at the observation locations 2 meters away is 5.2 dB when the error microphones are placed at 0.2 m inside the secondary source surface