Fuselage panel noise attenuation by piezoelectric switching control

This paper describes a problem that we encountered in our noise attenuation project and our solution for it. We intend to attenuate low-frequency noise that transmits through aircraft fuselage panels. Our method of noise attenuation is implemented with a piezoelectric semi-active system having a selective switch instead of an active energy-supply system. The semi-active controller is based on the predicted sound pressure distribution obtained from acoustic emission analysis. Experiments and numerical simulations demonstrate that the semi-active method attenuates acoustic levels of not only the simple monochromatic noise but also of broadband noise. We reveal that tuning the electrical parameters in the circuit is the key to effective noise attenuation, to overcome the acoustic excitation problem due to sharp switching actions, as well as to control chattering problems. The results obtained from this investigation provide meaningful insights into designing noise attenuation systems for comfortable aircraft cabin environments.