Multiphysics Modeling and Experimental Validation of the Active Reduction of Structure-Borne Noise

This paper presents a fully coupled multiphysics modeling and experimental validation of the problem of active reduction of noise generated by a thin plate under forced vibration. The plate is excited in order to generate a significant low-frequency noise, which is then reduced by actuators in the form of piezoelectric patches glued to the plate with epoxy resin in locations singled out earlier during finite element (FE) analyses. To this end, a fully coupled FE system relevant for the problem is derived. The modeling is very accurate: The piezoelectric patches are modeled according to the electromechanical theory of piezoelectricity, the layers of epoxy resin are thoroughly considered, and the acoustic-structure interaction involves modeling of a surrounding sphere of air with the nonreflective boundary conditions applied in order to simulate the conditions found in anechoic chamber. The FE simulation is compared with many experimental results. The sound pressure levels computed in points at different distances from the plate agree excellently with the noise measured in these points. Similarly, the computed voltage amplitudes of controlling signal turn out to be very good estimations.