Optimal Placement of Sensors and Actuators for Feedforward Noise and Vibration Control

Abstract

Active systems for noise and vibration control have been under investigation for more than three decades now. It is well-known that the placement of both sensor and actuator is of crucial importance for the achievement of a reasonable noise and vibration reduction. By measuring a reference signal, a feedforward control system is able to reduce even broadband stochastic excitations. Using a simple vibration control example, this chapter summarises and analyses the parameters that influence the noise and vibration reduction of a feedforward control system. Furthermore, an optimisation tool for the placement of actuators and sensors of a feedforward control system is introduced. A special emphasis is placed on the analysis of the impacts of causality and the number of filter weights on the actuator placement. It can be shown that the actuator placement for a feedforward control system is dependent on the delays, the filter weights and even on the structural damping of the system. Besides the simulation results, the dependency of the actuator placement on the filter weights is experimentally investigated on a simple aluminium plate. The simulation results could only be partially validated at this stage due to model uncertainties.