Journal of Low Frequency Noise,Vibration and Active Control

In this study, some of the optimal parameters for a new-style marine axial flow fan are defined by using numerical simulation and experimental tests with a large marine axial flow fan, based on the analysis of the blade perforation’s influences on its internal flow field and aerodynamic noise characteristics. Test result shows that the noise reduction for the axial flow fan with perforated blade is about 3 dB when the blade perforation diameter D is 10 mm and its deflection angle α is 45°. The results of the study show that there is an inhibitory effect on the discrete noise of axial flow fan with perforated blade on the tip area, and its total noise level emerged as the fluctuated distribution characteristics with the increase in the perforation diameter D and reduced along with the increase in the deflection of perforation angle α, at the same time varied as a linear characteristics, which can be reasonably explained by the acoustic interference theory. The results of the study have also further confirmed that the improvement of the flow of axial flow fan with perforated blade helps to reduce the pressure pulsation amplitude caused by the turbulence of the blade surface boundary layer, thereby suppressing the back-flow and vortex from the pressure surface to the suction surface efficiently. It is indicated that the improved vortex shedding phenomenon at the blade trailing edge after perforation on the area of blade tip is the main reason for the aerodynamic noise reduction of axial flow fan.

Range-extended electric vehicles have the most complex noise and vibration problems since certain control strategies often make range extenders (REs) shut down or restart for the sake of better fuel consumption. This paper deals with this uncomfortable riding experience, especially during the range extender start phase. A control-oriented nonlinear model for the start–stop vibration analysis, including range extender mount system, engine–clutch–motor shaft system, engine inertia torque and force, engine friction torque, engine gas torque, engine manifold pressure, electric motor torque, and range extender controller, is thus built. In the developed model, a new estimation method for gas torque is proposed, where the initial crank angle is considered and the relevant equations are simplified. The method has proven to predict gas torque accurately without using a complex calculation process. According to the developed model, the active control method, crankshaft stop position control (CSPC) has been proposed. The crankshaft stop position is analyzed as well as the crankshaft movement with different speeds at top dead center is discussed, which lead to the design of the target curves for crankshaft movement during the stop phase. Based on the set-up model, CSPC is finally applied through the cascade control of the motor to evaluate the control effectiveness. The simulation outcomes demonstrate that CSPC can help the crankshaft to finally stop at the optimal initial crank angle, which effectively lessens the vibration in the next start phase.

In this article, an experimental investigation of the detection of a gyroscopically induced vibration and the balancing control performance of a single-wheel robot is presented. The balance of the single-wheel robot was intended to be maintained by virtue of the gyroscopic effect induced from a highly rotating flywheel. Since the flywheel rotates at a high speed, an asymmetrical structure of a flywheel causes an irregular rotation and becomes one of the major vibration sources. A vibration was detected and suppressed a priori before applying control algorithms to the robot. Gyroscopically induced vibrations can empirically be detected with different rotational velocities. The detection of the balancing angle of the single-wheel robot was accomplished by using an attitude and heading reference system. After identifying the vibrating frequencies, a notch filter was designed to suppress the vibration at the typical frequencies identified through experiments. A digital filter was designed and implemented in a digital signal processor(DSP) along with the control scheme for the balance control performance. The performance of the proposed method was verified by the experimental studies on the balancing control of the single-wheel robot. Experimental results confirmed that the notch filter designed following the detection of the flywheel’s vibration actually improved the balancing control performance. A half of the vibration magnitude was reduced by the proposal.

In this paper the optimal control and parameters design of fractional-order vehicle suspension system are researched, where the system is described by fractional-order differential equation. The linear quadratic optimal state regulator is designed based on optimal control theory, which is applied to get the optimal control force of the active fractional-order suspension system. A stiffness-damping system is added to the passive fractional-order suspension system. Based on the criteria, i.e. the force arising from the accessional stiffness-damping system should be as close as possible to the optimal control force of the active fractional-order suspension system, the parameters of the optimized passive fractional-order suspension system are obtained by least square algorithm. An Oustaloup filter algorithm is adopted to simulate the fractional-order derivatives. Then, the simulation models of the three kinds of fractional-order suspension systems are developed respectively. The simulation results indicate that the active and optimized passive fractional-order suspension systems both reduce the value of vehicle body vertical acceleration and improve the ride comfort compared with the passive fractional-order suspension system, whenever the vehicle is running on a sinusoidal surface or random surface.

To design a distributed fiber optic vibration sensor for urban natural gas pipeline leak detection, the light polarization fading transmission model based on Jones matrix is built in this mixed Sagnac/Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration. The interference light intensity of pipeline with leakage and without leakage cases is compared through spectrum analyzer. When fiber length ranges from 1.5 to 9.5 km, the light power intensity (central wavelength 1550 nm) reduces to −56 dB. In experiment, the leaky spectrum null frequencies are captured and the average relative error of leakage point location varies from 2.3 to 5.3%. When the sensing length is expanded to 9.5 km, the vibration sensor system sensitivity is 0.57 Hz/m.

Planetary gearbox fault diagnosis is very important for reducing the downtime, maintenance cost, and for improving the safety, reliability, and lifespan of wind turbines. The present work reports the results concluded by long-term experiments to a defected planetary gearbox system, with a transverse cut with a depth of 1.0 mm and thickness of 0.2 mm to simulate the planetary gearbox component crack. For each defect, recordings every 60.0 min were acquired and a total of 7 recordings (∼ 6.0 h of test duration) were resulted until the termination of the test. Fault is assured by increasing the test period to the point of where the remaining metal in the tooth area has enough stress to be in the plastic deformation region. An experimental procedure is developed to assess the severity of the gearbox component fault. Gearbox components faults of cracked planet gear tooth, cracked planet gears carrier, and cracked main bearing inner race were tested under accelerated fault conditions, where a comparative analysis of condition monitoring indicators for various crack detection has been done. The experimental localized fault signals (vibration acceleration signals) were subjected to the same diagnostic techniques such as spectrum comparisons, spectral kurtosis analysis, skewness analysis, and crest factor analysis. The method is validated on a set of seeded localized faults on all gears and components: sun gear, ring gear, etc. The results look promising, where the root mean square value analysis could be a good indicator when compared with the other indicators in terms of early detection and characterization of faults.

This paper presents an adaptive algorithm for active control of noise sources that are of impulsive nature. The impulsive type sources can be better modeled as a stable distribution than the Gaussian. However, for stable distributions, the variance (second order moment) is infinite. The standard adaptive filtering algorithms, which are based on minimizing variance and assuming Gaussian distribution, converge slowly or become even unstable for stable (impulsive) processes. In order to improve the performance of the standard filtered-x least mean square (FxLMS)-based impulsive active noise control (IANC) systems, we propose two enhancements in this paper. First, we propose employing modified tanh function-based nonlinear process in the reference and error paths of the standard FxLMS algorithm. The main idea is to automatically give an appropriate weight to the various samples in the process, i.e. appropriately threshold the very large values so that system remains stable, and give more weight to samples below threshold limit so that the convergence speed can be improved. A second proposal is to incorporate the fractional-gradient computation in the update vector of IANC adaptive filter. Computer simulations have been carried out using experimental data for the acoustic paths. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is very effective for IANC systems.

Rubber or elastomeric materials are widely used for shock absorbers having elastic and viscous properties such as high inherent damping, deflection capacity, and energy storage. The dynamic properties of these components are of primary concern in designing rubber absorbers to reduce the shock loading given as well as the structure-borne noise transmissibility. Besides, the dynamic response of the mechanical systems, at where the rubber shock absorbers are used, is directly associated with the properties of the shock absorbers. In order to determine these properties of the rubber, mathematical models are created in terms of hyperelasticity and viscoelasticity. The hyperelastic and viscoelastic material models represent the nonlinear elastic and strain rate dependencies of the overall rubber behavior, respectively. Hyperelastic material model captures the material’s nonlinear elasticity with no-time dependence whereas viscoelastic model describes the material response which contains an elastic and viscous part depending on time, frequency, and temperature. This paper presents the dynamic characterization of rubber shock absorbers, having different shore hardness values, in terms of hyperelastic and viscoelastic constitutive models. The parameters of the constitutive models are determined from the uniaxial tensile and relaxation tests. These parameters are used for the numerical model of the rubber components and the accuracy of the characterization is presented by means of a numerical case study.

A two-dimensional boundary element method with a constant element type was adopted to study the sound field of a building near a roadway. First, a factor analysis of the computed results has been done, which include the element length, the Hankel functions’ calculation accuracy, and numerical integration accuracy. Then, boundary element method is applied to calculate building attenuation with different building aspect ratios and different frequencies with balconies, followed by drawing of the sound field distribution diagram. The calculation results revealed the following: (1) a wider building results in a more severe sound attenuation; (2) balconies on different floors produce a reduction of approximately 15 dB for broadband spectral characteristics of A-weight road traffic noise, and the maximum values appear at the bottoms of balconies; (3) for the points in the balconies, higher sound frequencies are correlated to larger insertion loss, with the insertion loss increasing from 3 dB to >10 dB when the sound frequency increases from 20 to 4000 Hz; (4) calculations of three typical frequencies indicate that the insertion loss of 500 Hz (main frequency of heavy vehicles) is 6 dB less than that of 800 Hz (main frequency of light vehicles), i.e. the flow control of heavy vehicles could conspicuously improve the ambient acoustic environment of buildings near a roadway.

Aero-servo-elastic analysis of a complex hypersonic aircraft is presented in this paper. A structure geometry was designed and built based on the X-43A vehicle. First, a three-dimensional structural finite element model was proposed with effective two-dimensional elements, which can obtain effective modal analysis results without useless local modes. Second, computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation was adopted to find aero-heating distribution of thermal mode via this structure. Aero-heating effect was included to study thermal-modal characteristics of the present structure. Influence due to material characteristic change and thermal stress was studied. After structural finite element analysis was completed, flutter of the present vehicle was investigated. Aero-servo-elastic analysis was then started from the definition of an aero-servo-elastic closed-loop system. In this system, the present aircraft is treated as flexible structure, in which the control sensor on the aircraft received not only rigid motion signal but also elastic vibration signal, and this signal can translate into the deflection signal to form aerodynamic control force through this aero-servo control system, and this force can continually influence aerodynamic force. One of the most important steps for this analysis was computation of unsteady aerodynamic force of the present structure, and the related process was developed based on an effective fitting method. Finally, bode diagrams of pitching, rolling and yawing were investigated, form which the law of aero-servo stability of the X-43A vehicle can be observed and analyzed. It can be found from the results of this paper that effective investigation of aero-servo-elastic characteristics of a complex hypersonic aircraft should be based on accurate structural finite element modeling, modal analysis and flutter analysis. The proposed method in this paper can provide effective analysis process for the design of controller for hypersonic aircraft.

A two-degree-of-freedom nonlinear vibration system of a quarter vehicle suspension system is studied by using the feedback control method considered the fractional-order derivative damping. The nonlinear dynamic model of two-degree-of-freedom vehicle suspension system is built and linear velocity and displacement controllers are used to control the nonlinear vibration of the vehicle suspension system. A case of the 1:1 internal resonance is considered. The amplitude–frequency response is obtained with the multiscale method. The asymptotic stability conditions of the nonlinear system can be gotten by using the Routh–Hurwitz criterion and the ranges of control parameters are gained in the condition of stable solutions to the system. The simulation results show that the feedback control can effectively reduce the amplitude of primary resonance, weaken or even eliminate the nonlinear vibration characteristics of the suspension system. Fractional orders have an impact on control performance, which should be considered in the control problem. The study will provide a theoretical basis and reference for the optimal design of the vehicle suspension system.

In recent years, several solutions for structural vibration control of buildings have been proposed. In particular, the combination of base-isolated structures with complementary variable damping devices has been successful in reducing the base isolator displacements without increasing the building superstructure response when subjected to earthquake loads. In this paper, a magnetorheological device is installed on a 2-DOF mechanical model mounted on an experimental uniaxial shaking table. A simple numerical simulation model is derived for the experimental setup and it represents a typical base-isolated structure with a semi-active vibration controller. The control law combines a force tracking integral action with a clipped on–off adaptation rule that changes the magnetorheological damping in real time. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is demonstrated for both earthquake-like and real earthquake input ground motions. A comparison between the numerical and the experimental results validates the numerical simulations and it gives confidence in using this model for validation and evaluation of other semi-active control solutions based on magnetorheological dampers.

This paper mainly studies the structure of a carbon fiber reinforced polymer floating raft frame and analyzes its vibration mode. A frame-based floating raft frame is designed, and two floating rafts which are made of carbon fiber reinforced polymer and metal materials, respectively, and have the same size and structure are manufactured. Based on the modal theory of vibration, the Abaqus software is used to carry out the finite element modal analysis of the frames which are made of different materials, and compare the low-order flexible frequency and vibration mode. Later, the experimental modal test results are verified with modal assurance criterion, and the modal experiment is conducted to verify the accuracy of finite element modal calculations. The results show that under the circumstance of the same frame vibration mode, the damping ratio of the carbon fiber reinforced polymer frame is much higher than that of the metal frame. In addition, the carbon fiber reinforced polymer frame presents good vibration absorption performance. The data analysis results provide some reference value for floating raft vibration designers.

The aerodynamic noise has been the dominant factor of noise issues in high-speed train as the traveling speed increases. The inter-coach windshield region is considered as one of the main aerodynamic noise sources; however, the corresponding characteristics have not been well investigated. In this paper, a hybrid method is adopted to study the aerodynamic noise around the windshield region. The effectiveness of simulation methods is validated by a simple case of cavity noise. After that, the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulation is used to obtain the characteristics of flow field around the windshield region, which determine the aerodynamic noise. Then the nonlinear acoustic solver approach is employed to acquire the near-field noise, while the Ffowcs-Williams/Hawking equation is solved for far-field acoustic propagation. The results indicate that the windshield region is approximately an open cavity filled with severe disturbance flow. According to the analysis of sound pressure distribution in the near-acoustic field, both sides of the windshield region appear symmetrical two-lobe shape with different directivities. The results of frequency spectrum analysis indicate that the aerodynamic noise inside inter-coach space is a typical broadband one from 100 Hz to 5k Hz, and most acoustic power is restricted in the low-medium frequency range (below 500 Hz). In addition, the acoustic power in the low frequency range (below 100 Hz) is closely related to the cavity resonance with the resonance peak frequency of 42 Hz. The overall sound pressure level at different speeds shows that the acoustic power grows approximately 5th power of the train speed. Two forms of outside-windshields are designed to reduce the noise around the windshield region, and the results show the full-windshield form is better in noise reduction, which apparently eliminates interior cavity noise of inter-coach space and lessens the overall sound pressure level on the sides of near-field by about 13 dB.

This study is based on a real finite element human head–neck model and concentrates on its numerical vibration characteristic. Frequency spectrum and mode shapes of the finite element model of human head–neck under mechanical vibration have been calculated. These vibration characteristics are in good agreement with the previous studies. The simulated fundamental frequency of 35.25 Hz is fairly similar to the published documents, and rarely reported modal responses such as “mastication” and flipping of nasal lateral cartilages modes, however, are introduced by our three-dimensional modal analysis. These additional modes may be of interest to surgeons or clinicians who are specialized in temporomandibular or rhinoplasty joint disorder. Modal validation in terms of modal shapes proposes a necessity for elaborate modeling to identify each individual part’s extra frequencies. Furthermore, it also studies the influence of damping on resonant frequencies and biomechanical responses. It is discovered that damping has an inverse proportionality between damping effect on natural frequency and that on biomechanical responses.

The paper presents an experimental analysis of the selected feedback vibration control schemes dedicated to magnetorheological dampers, related to ride comfort and road holding. They were applied in a complex vibration control system installed in a commercially available off-road vehicle. Original shock-absorbers of the vehicle were replaced with magnetorheological dampers. The control system takes advantage of numerous sensors installed in the vehicle tracking its motion, i.e. accelerometers, suspension deflection sensors (linear variable differential transformer) and IMU module. Vibration control algorithms: Skyhook, PI, and Groundhook were tested experimentally using mechanical exciters adapted for diagnosis of a vehicle suspension system. Since the presented semi-active vibration control requires the magnetorheological damper inverse model to be applied, accurate operation of this model significantly influences the quality of vibration control. Therefore, additional analysis was related to application of measurements from accelerometers or suspension deflection sensors in the inverse model. Presented variants of control algorithms were compared by means of transmissibility characteristics evaluated in the frequency domain as well as using ride-comfort- and driving-safety-related quality indices. It was confirmed that the Skyhook control as well as PI improved ride comfort, whereas Groundhook control improved road holding and decreases vibration of the wheels. Furthermore, it was shown that both approaches to the relative velocity estimation, based on accelerometers and linear variable differential transformers, can be used in this application. However, the first solution gives better results in the case of the Skyhook and PI control, whereas application of LVDT sensors is better for the Groundhook algorithm.

This article is devoted to finding solutions of problems of vibration isolators with quasi-zero stiffness from a manufacturing point of view. The following study is appeared after experimental study and manufacturing of preproduction serial of universal isolators of a dome type. An analytical description of some types of vibration isolators with quasi-zero stiffness is briefly observed. The sensitivity of vibration isolators of a dome type is studied. It is proved that vibration isolators with quasi-zero stiffness require high precision at manufacturing. Dynamics of a group of vibration isolators is also analyzed. It appears that an average behavior of an isolator in a group may not coincide with the behavior of a single isolator. Due to the normal distribution of parameter, the total properties of the vibration isolator can be slightly changed.

Modal analysis and flutter computation of a complex tail cabin system including six all-movable rudders for hypersonic flight vehicle was studied in this paper. Recently, some complex all-movable rudder system has been applied to hypersonic flight vehicle. Many investigations were taken to analyse a single all-movable rudder, such as modal analysis, flutter analysis, aero-heating analysis, etc. But most of existing investigations emphasized on single rudder. In this paper, a complex tail cabin system including six all-movable rudders from the X-51A vehicle was investigated. Modal analysis was presented based on accurate finite element modelling and bending and twisting modes of the structure were computed. Ground vibration test was provided to confirm the accuracy of computation. Then flutter characteristic of this complex system was analysed based on doublet lattice method. With flight Mach number 3 and 4, flutter analysis relating to both symmetric mode and antisymmetric mode was presented. It can be found from the presented results of flutter analysis that there were obvious and non-negligible coupling vibration effects among rudders in such a complex rudder system. So flutter characteristic of hypersonic flight vehicle should be analysed based on the whole system modelling including all of rudders. This analysis process can play a significant role for the design and flight of hypersonic vehicle.