Using a psychoacoustic criterion for the actuator placement in an active structural acoustic control system

Abstract

Active structural acoustic control (ASAC) systems for flexible structures with enclosed cavities are normally designed with the goal of minimizing the acoustic potential energy in the cavity. This goal is also taken into account during the search for an optimal actuator placement for the ASAC sys-tem. This paper is concerned with the change in the acoustic response of a structurally excited cavity when a psychoacoustic criterion is used for the placement of the actuators of the ASAC system instead. The placement of actuators on a flexible structure enclosed by a cavity is optimized using a genetic algorithm. Two optimization criteria are used: the acoustic potential energy in the cavity and the psychoacoustic loudness in the cavity. Numerical results regarding the acoustic potential energy reduction and the loudness reduction in the cavity of the coupled system in the case of an optimal feedforward control are presented for the two different actuator placement criteria.