Abstract
To bring down noise levels in human surroundings is an important
issue and a method to reduce noise by means of topology optimization
is presented here. The acoustic field is modeled by Helmholtz
equation and the topology optimization method is based on continuous
material interpolation functions in the density and bulk modulus.
The objective function is the squared sound pressure amplitude.
First, room acoustic problems are considered and it is shown that
the sound level can be reduced in a certain part of the room by an
optimized distribution of reflecting material in a design domain
along the ceiling or by distribution of absorbing and reflecting
material along the walls. We obtain well defined optimized designs
for a single frequency or a frequency interval for both 2D and 3D
problems when considering low frequencies. Second, it is shown that
the method can be applied to the design of outdoor sound barriers
and reduce the sound level in the shadow zone behind the barrier up
to 10 dB for a single barrier and almost 30 dB when using 2 barriers
compared to utilizing conventional sound barriers.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Journal of Sound and Vibration |
Volume | 317 |
Issue number | 3-5 |
Pages (from-to) | 557-575 |
ISSN | 0022-460X |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2008 |
Keywords
- topology optimization
- sound barriers
- room acoustics
- Helmholtz equation
- noise reduction