A Module Based Active Noise Control System for Ventilation Systems, Part II: Performance Evaluation

To utilize the full noise attenuation potential of an active noise control (ANC) system applied to duct noise, it is important to be able to minimize the turbulence induced noise in the microphone signals. This is the second paper in a series of two, that treats the problem of turbulence induced noise originating from the airflow inside the ducts, when applying ANC to ducts. Part I contains theoretical and experimental investigations of the influence of the turbulence induced noise on the filtered-x LMS algorithm used in the ANC system. Part II (the present paper) is concerned with design and investigations of microphone installations which produces a sufficient amount of turbulence suppression while also meeting industry requirements. These requirements are, for example, that the microphone installations should be based on standard ventilation parts, and that they should be easily installed and maintained. Furthermore, results concerning the performance of an ANC system with different microphone installations are presented. Some of the results were obtained at an acoustic laboratory according to an ISO standard. The attenuation achieved with ANC was approximately 15-25 dB between 50-315 Hz even for airflow speeds up to 20 m/s