Acoustic attenuation of hybrid silencers

The acoustic attenuation of a single-pass, perforated concentric silencer filled with continuous strand fibers is investigated first theoretically and experimentally. The study is then extended to a specific type of hybrid silencer that consists of two single-pass perforated filling chambers combined with a Helmholtz resonator. One-dimensional analytical and three-dimensional boundary element methods (BEM) are employed for the predictions of the acoustic attenuation in the absence of mean flow. To account for the wave propagation in absorbing fiber, the complex-valued characteristic impedance and wave number are measured. The perforation impedance facing the fiber is also presented in terms of complex-valued characteristic impedance and wave number. The effects of outer chamber diameter and the fiber density are examined. Comparisons of predictions with the experiments illustrate the need for multi-dimensional analysis at higher frequencies, while the one-dimensional treatment provides a reasonable accuracy at lower frequencies, as expected. The study also shows a significant improvement in the acoustic attenuation of the silencer due to fiber absorption. Multi-dimensional BEM predictions of a hybrid silencer demonstrate that a reactive component such as a Helmholtz resonator can improve transmission loss at low frequencies and a higher duct porosity may be effective at higher frequencies. r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.