Controller design for the active control of gearbox noise: preliminary results

Active Structural Acoustic Control (ASAC) tries to reduce the radiated sound by actively influencing the dynamics of a structure. The main idea behind this research is to apply ASAC by acting on the structure as close as possible to the noise source, in order to cancel the vibration energy as soon as possible in the transfer path. For the considered application of gear noise, an experimental set-up has been built, as discussed in [1]. The set-up (see figure below) consists of a shaft supported by two bearings, of which one is made “active” by mounting piezo-actuators around it, to influence the vibration transfer in the bearings. Sound is radiated by a flexible panel mounted on the set-up.