Aircraft Cabin Tonal Noise Alleviation Through Fuselage Skin Embedded Piezoelectric Actuators

An integrated spectral-integral formulation is applied for prediction and active control of the noise generated by propellers inside the cabin of a general aviation aircraft. It consists of a multidisciplinary approach that involves interaction among exterior noise field, elastic fuselage dynamics, interior acoustics, and control system. A fuselage skin embedding piezoelectric elements is supposed to be impinged by external sound waves generated by propellers. An optimal harmonic control approach is applied for the actuation of the piezoelectric patches, aimed at alleviating the corresponding cabin noise. The aeroacoustoelastic plant model considered in the control problem is obtained by combining modal approaches for the description of cabin acoustic field and fuselage shell dynamics, with a boundary element method scattering formulation for the prediction of exterior pressure disturbances. Considering the fuselage of a general aviation aircraft impinged by noise generated by a couple of pulsating point sources moving with it, numerical results examine the effectiveness of the control approach applied to several configurations of piezoelectric actuators.