United States

Warnaka et a1.

010111 [19]

[11] [45]

Patent Number: Date of Patent:

4,473,906
Sep. 25, 1984

[54] ACTIVE ACOUSTIC ATTENUATOR [75] Inventors: Glenn E. Warnaka, Erie; Lynn A. Poole; Jiri Tichy, both of State
College, all of Pa.

W. B. Conover, Fighting Noise with Noise, Mar. 1956, pp. 78-82, 92. H. F. Olson, Electronic Control of Noise, Vibration, &

Reverberation, Sep. 1956, pp. 966-972.

DiStefano, et al., Linear Systems & Differential Equa tions, 1967, pp. 31-32 and The Laplace Transform pp. 56-59, pp. 355-356. J. C. Bleazy, Electronic Sound Absorber, Apr. 1962, vol..l0, No. 2, pp. 135-139. S. Onoda et al., Automatic Control of Stationary Noise

[73] Assignee: Lord Corporation, Erie, Pa. [21] Appl. No.: 213,254
[22] Filed:
[51] [52]

Dec. 5, 1980
FOlN 1/06

Int. 01.3 ................... .. 1104B 15/00;H04B11/00; us. 01. ....................................... .. 381/71; 381/73

by Means of Directivity Synthesis, Aug. 21-28, 1968,

pp. F-l85-F-l88.

[58]

Field of Search ..................... .. 179/1 F, 1 P, 1 D;

B. Widrow, Adaptive Filters, 1971, pp. 1-25.

J. J. M. Jessel et 211., Active Sound Absorbers In An Air

[56]

181/206; 381/71, 94, 9e, 98, 103, 108, 121 References Cited U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
2,043,416 6/1936 Lueg ........................ ..'. ........ .. 381/71
Hendrick ..... .. .. 2,618,353 11/1952

Duct, 1972, pp. 384-390. M. A. Swinbanks, The Active Control of Sound Propa gation in Long Ducts, 1973, pp. 412-436. B. Widrow et al., Adaptive Noise Cancelling: Principles and Applications, Dec. 1974. vol. 63, No. 12.
(List continued on next page.)

2,776,020

1/1957 Conover et a1.

2,983,790 5/1961
3,247,925 4/1966
3,396,812 8/1968

179/114 R
.... .. 181/250

3,685,610 8/1972 3,784,747 1/1974

3,922,488 3,826,870 11/1975 7/1974 Gabr Wurm ......... et al...
3,936,606 2/1976 Wanke ..... ..

181/206 179/81 B

Primary Examiner-A. D. Pellinen ssistant ExaminerRandall P. Myers Attorney, Agent, or FirmWood, Herron & Evans

[57]

ABSTRACT

An active attenuator is provided for the attenuation of a

relatively broad band of lower frequency vibration such

as sound waves from a given source, by the introduc
..
.... .. 179/1 P

4,025,724 5/ 1977 Davidson, Jr. et a1.

4,044,203 8/1977 Swinbanks ........... ..

4,109,108
4,153,815

8/1978
5/1979

Coxon et al.
Chaplin et a1. .

tion of cancelling vibration having the mirror image

amplitude and phase characteritics of the source vibra
tion. The active attenuator herein includes an input sensor for detecting the source vibration, a cancelling

4,122,303 10/1978
4,171,465 10/1979 4,177,874 12/1979

Chaplin et a]. .
Swinbanks ....... .. Angelini et a1. ..... ..

.... .. 179/1 P
..

speaker for generating cancelling vibration, an error

sensor for sensing the combination of source and cancel

4,238,746 12/1980

McCool et a1. ................... .. 333/166

FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS

2507428 1357330 1512014 8/1975 Fed. Rep. of Germany .... .. 181/206 6/1974 United Kingdom .............. .. 181/206 5/ 1978 United Kingdom .

ling vibration, and an electronic controller coupled to the input sensor, cancelling speaker and error sensor. The electronic controller includes an adaptive cancel ling ?lter which employs a deterministic algorithm operable to accommodate the propagation delays of the
vibration sensed by the input and error sensors, and

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Mohammed Ulysses Fips, I.R.E., Noise Neutralizer,

Apr. 1952, pp. 52-53.

produce an output to activate and control the cancelling

speaker for the production of cancelling vibration.

21 Claims, 18 Drawing Figures

Radio Electronics, Sound Destroys Sound, Aug. 1954,

pp. 70-71.

4,473,906
Page 2
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
New Scientist, Scientists Make a Sucker of a Loud Speaker and Make Your Own Micro?che0n a Video

J. H. B. Poole et al., An Experimental Study of Swin

banks Methods of Active Attenuation of Sound in

Ducts, 1976, pp. 257-266. H.G. Leventhall, Developments in Active Attenuators, Oct. 1976, pp. 1-10. J. M. McCool, Principles and Applications of Adaptive Filters: A Tutorial Review, Mar. 1977, i-31. Apparent Disclosure Document of Chaplin et al., dated Oct. 26, 1977. M. G. Larimore, Adaptive Noise Cancelling Via Input Equalization, 1978 pp. 304-309.
N. Hesselmann, Investigation of Noise Reduction on a

Disc., Sep. 28, 1978 p. 939. M. R. Sambur, Adaptive Noise Canceling for Speech Signals, Oct. 1978, vol. ASSP-26, No. 5, pp. 419-423.
NRDC News, NRDC and Lord Corporation An
nounce Disclosure Agreement on Active Silencers,

Nov. 20, 1978, pp. 1-2.

J. E. Paul, Adaptive Digital Techniques for Audio

Noise Cancellation, 1979 vol. 1, No. 4., pp. 2-7.
A. R. Davidson, Jr. Active Reduction of Low Fre

quency Sound From Large Vibrating Surfaces, Aug.

15, 1975, pp. i-9 and Chapter V pp. 134-167.

100 kVA Transformer Tank by Means of Active Meth ods, 1978, pp. 27-34. G. Canevet, Active Sound Absorption in an Air Condi

R. E. Kalman, On the General Theory of Control Sys

terns, pp. 481-492.

tioning Duct, 1978, pp. 333-345.

Journal of Sound, Active Attenuation of Noise in Ducts, 1978 pp. 308-309. G. B. B. Chaplin et al., The Sound of Silence, Jul. 1978.

Electronics, Microprocessor-Based Sound Deadener

Cuts Low-Frequency Noise Up to 20 dB in Tests, Jul. 6, 1978, pp. 70-71.

J. C. Burgess, Active Adaptive Sound Control in a Duct: A computer Simulation, 1981, pp. 715-726. R. D. Marciniak, A Near?eld, Underwater Measure ment System, 1979, pp. 955-964. The 100th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of Amer ica, Nov. 21, 1980, pp. 891-892. Warnaka, Active Attenuation of Noise-The State of the

Art, May-Jun. 1982, pp.- 100-110.

U.S. Patent

Sep.25, 1984

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ACTIVE ACOUSTIC ATTENUATOR

4,473,906

FIELD OF THE INVENTION sent to the ampli?er equals 180 or an odd multiple of The subject invention relates to the ?eld of acoustic 5 180. However, this condition will occur only for a speci?c stationary acoustic signal which does not vary attenuation, and, more particularly, to a device capable of attenuating a narrow or broad band of lower fre in time. As a practical matter therefore, the Lueg sys quency sound and single frequencies propagating from tem is effective only for a single frequency since no a given source through a con?ned area such as a duct by means are provided to accommodate phase change. the introduction of cancelling sound which is 180 out What this limitation of the Lueg system shows is that of phase and equal in amplitude to the source sound. there are two parameters which must be met for good BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

microphone (where the source sound is sampled) and the loudspeaker (where the cancelling sound is intro duced) is such that the phase shift of the electrical signal

attenuation, including delay time, to allow the acoustic

wave to move from the point of detection to the point of attenuation, and phase, to assure that attenuation occurs
wave. '

Signi?cant reductions in the sound pressure levels of

chinery and various manufacturing operations may be carried from the heating and ventilating ducts in such
areas to the ducts which connect to of?ces and other

sound carried through con?ned enclosures such as 15 at the point of introduction of the cancelling acoustic ducts has been an unresolved problem for many years. In factories, for example, the noise produced by ma In addition to the limitation of the Lueg system asso~

parts of the plants in which a low level of noise is de sired. This is particularly a problem with low frequency noise in the range of infrasound to 800 Hertz, since passive means to attenuate such frequencies are costly,

ciated with phase detection and accomodation, a prob lem exists with the generation of standing waves by the loudspeaker in the upstream direction toward the mi crophone. Because of the standing wave pattern, the
pressure of the sound ?eld at the microphone is arti? cially nonuniform which means that at a given fre
25 quency the microphone may be located at a node or

relatively inefficient and physically large in size making

them impractical for use in most low frequency applica
tions. '

antinode of a standing wave. Therefore the cancellation

signal produced by the speaker may be made to be too

great or too little. As a result, the sound ?eld may be

Beginning in 1925 and continuing at an extremely

rapid pace today, developments in electronics have

made the concept of active attenuation of noise to be not only a possible but attractive alternative to passive attenuation of low frequencies. The principle of so
called active attenuation is based on the fact that the

ampli?ed by the standing waves in such a way that the

resulting propagation downstream from the speaker

could be even greater than the sound produced by the source. In addition, the standing wave ?eld could inten sify the sound pressure in the duct and more sound could pass through the walls of the duct creating a

speed of sound in air is much less than the speed of

electrical signals. In the time it takes for a sound wave to propagate from a location where it is detected to a remote location where it may be attenuated, there is suf?cient time to sample the propagating wave, process such information within an electronic circuit and pro duce a signal to drive a speaker which introduces can 40

secondary problem.
In an effortto avoid the above-identi?ed standing wave problem and expand the frequency range of atten uation, several active attenuation systems have been developed subsequent to the Lueg system. One prior art
system, shown in FIG. 2, utilizes the combination of a

celling sound 180 out of phase and equal in amplitude

monopole/dipole arrangement with the dipole being

located on one wall of the duct and the monopole being to the propagating sound. Although the process of ac located on the opposite side of the duct as shown. This tive attenuation of sound stated above appears to be system was ?rst introduced by M. Jessel and G. Man conceptually simple, a review of the prior art in this area will illustrate the complexity of the problemtand 45 giante and is described in a paper entitled, Active Sound Absorbers .In An Air Duct, JS V (1972) 23 the dif?culty of obtaining good attenuation over a rela tively broad band of lower frequencies. (3,383-390). The dipole and monopole of the Jessel system are phased so that they add in the downstream One of the ?rst efforts in the area of active attenua direction and subtract in the upstream direction allow tors is disclosed in US. Pat. No. 2,043,416 to Lueg ing a unidirectional propagation to be formed when the shown in FIG. 1. The Lueg system is a monopole con sources are balanced. It has been found however that sisting of a microphone, ampli?er and speaker. The the results obtainable with the Jessel system are fre microphone detects the source sound and converts its into an electrical signal which is fed to the ampli?er. quency dependent and related to the half wave length

The loudspeaker, driven by the ampli?er, is disposed

downstream from the microphone at a location to give the necessary time delay to accomplish a 180 phase reversal from the source sound. The loudspeaker injects

of the dipole separation. In addition, the complexity of

this system does not lend itself for use in many practical

applications.

As a means of simpli?cation of the Jessel system and a mirror image of the source sound into the duct so'that to obtain improved performance, the dipole systems as the source sound passes the location of the loud shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 were developed. The system speaker, a volume of either high or low pressure air is 60 shown in FIG. 3 is discussed in US. Pat. No. 4,044,203 introduced 180 out of phase with the corresponding to Swinbanks. Swinbanks removed the monopole found

high and low pressure volume of air of the source

in Jessel and altered the phase characteristics of the

dipole so that the propagation of both sources is added with the passage of the source noise, the pressure of the in the downstream direction and cancelled in a direction .source noise and that of the loudspeaker averages to 0 65 upstream toward the microphone. The active attenua (ambient static pressure) and the noise is cancelled. tor shown in FIG. 4, and disclosed in US. Pat. No. It is apparent from an examination of the Lueg system 4,109,108 to Coxon et al, locates the microphone be that attenuation will occur if the distance between the tween two loudspeakers to produce a minimum level at

sound. When the loudspeaker is perfectly synchronized

4,473,906

'

3
the microphone position when the proper phasing be tween the speakers is introduced. While this system is
re?ective and produces a standing wave pattern up

stream of the dipole, the detection system (microphone) is not affected because it is located between the speak
ers, unlike the Swinbanks system.

consisting of three separate components'including a physical system, electronic circuitry and a coupling component between the physical system and circuitry. The physical system consists of the duct through which
sound waves propagate from a given source, an acoustic

In reviewing the performance of the dipole and dipo

le/monopole systems, it has been found that each of
these multisource systems seem to have geometry re

lated limitations. The physical spacing of the loudspeak

ers and microphones produces a tuning effect which sets the frequency of best performance and the band width. Although high levels of attenuation are possible, particularly with the Swinbanks systems, such a perfor mance is obtainable only through a relatively small band width on the order of about 2% octaves maximum. Accordingly, the most recent approaches to active
noise attenuation in ducts have concentrated on im

mixer connected in line with the duct, a speaker dis posed in a protective enclosure at a spaced distance from the duct and a waveguide connecting the speaker to the acoustic mixer. The electronic circuitry compo nent of the active attenuator herein consists of three distinct adaptive ?lters utilizing a modi?cation of the
' Widrow-I-Ioff LMS or least mean square algorithm in a

true adaptive acoustic cancelling con?guration. A mi

crophone array, disposed in the duct at a location up

provement of the monopole system ?rst introduced by

Lueg as discussed above. US. Pat. No. 4,122,303 to Chaplin et a1 is one example of a monopole system in

stream from the acoustic mixer, and a microphone posi tioned within the acoustic mixer downstream from the waveguide form the coupling means between the physi cal system and electronic circuitry. As discussed in detail below, the operation of the subject invention may be described in general terms as
follows. The microphone array senses the source sound in the duct and converts it to an electrical signal which is sent to a modi?ed adaptive ?lter in the electronic

which relatively sophisticated electronic circuitry is incorporated into the basic microphone/loudspeaker

circuitry component herein. The adaptive ?lter gener construction found in the Lueg system. In Chaplin et al, a secondary cancelling wave is produced by a ?rst elec 25 ates a signal to drive the speaker for the production of cancelling sound 180 out of phase with the source trical signal which represents the primary sound wave sound, which propagates through the waveguide to the sensed by a microphone. The ?rst electrical signal is acoustic mixer where it is combined with the source convolved with the second signal derived from the sound. The microphone located in a position down system impulse response as a program of operational stream from the waveguide within the acoustic mixer, steps. This process represents the standard operation of detects the sound resulting from the combination of the an adaptive ?lter as described in Feedback and Con source and cancelling sound and produces a signal trol Systems, Schaums Outline Series, 1967, pp.

179-185; Adaptive Filters, Widrow, B., Aspects of - which represents the error or difference between the attenuation achieved in the acoustic mixer and the de Network and System Theory, (1971); Principles and Applications of Adaptive Filters: A Tutorial Review, 35 sired attenuation based on preset levels. This error sig nal is introduced into the adaptive ?lter which then McCool, J. M.; Widrow, B., Institute of Electrical Engi adjusts its signal driving the speaker so that the cancel neers, (1976). To avoid the problem of standing waves ling sound propagating into the acoustic mixer more produced by the loudspeaker and propagated upstream
to the microphone, Chaplin et a1 suggests the use of a

nearly approximates the mirror image of the source unidirectional microphone or lining the duct between 40 sound. High levels of attenuation are thus achieved within the acoustic mixer and everywhere in the far the speaker and microphone with acoustically absor ?eld. bant material. In addition, Chaplin et al suggests the Several improvements and departures from prior art possibility of incorporating circuitry to provide a sec active attenuator systems have been made in the subject ond convolution capable of compensating for the feed back signal produced by the upstream standing waves. 45 invention both in the physical system and electronic circuitry components described above. These will be However, as discussed in more detail below, the so come apparent in the following discussion of the pre called adaptation process of the Chaplin et al system
occurs over a period of from 5 to 30 minutes and is thus

ferred embodiment. Such improvements have resulted

in a performance capability of the active attenuator
herein which far exceeds that of any known systems both in terms of the attenuation achieved and the speed

dependent on the source signal remaining essentially

constant over that period. Moreover, the control sys tem functions so slowly that in most practical cases it must be manually shut off while the ?rst convolution

and ?exibility of operation.

Therefore it is an object of the subject invention to provide an active acoustic attenuator consisting of a

process is still operative to avoid system hunting or

oscillation between better and poorer results. It should also be noted that each of the systems identi ?ed above share a common problem which in many

physical component, an electrical circuitry component

and coupling means between the two.

practical applications will reduce if not eliminate their potential use. In each case, the speaker portion of the system is placed directly in the environment of the duct to introduce the cancelling sound. It is anticipated that in many applications existing speakers will not be able
to survive the temperatures, particulates or other for eign materials found in the environment of the duct or in unprotected areas outside of the duct.

It is another object of the subject invention to provide

an active acoustic attenuator having a physical system component characterized by a speaker disposed in a protective enclosure at a location remote from the duct,

which is connected thereto by a waveguide.

It is a further object herein to provide an active acoustic attenuator having a physical system compo
nent consisting of an acoustic mixer into which a wave
65

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The subject invention is a modi?ed monopole-type active acoustic attenuator which may be thought of as

guide is connected at a discrete distance from the termi nation thereof. It is still another object of the present invention to
provide an active acoustic attenuator in which there is a

4,473,906

speci?c geometrical relationship between the relative location of the microphone array, speaker, waveguide
and error microphone which'is necessary to achieve

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of the adaptive uncou

pling ?lter portion of the electrical circuitry component herein.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of the adaptive compensa

desired attenuation.
It is a still further object to provide an active acoustic

tion ?lter portion of the electrical circuitry component

herein. '

attenuator having an electronic circuitry component

characterized by adaptive ?lters utilizing a modi?ed Widrow-Roff LMS algorithm. It is another object of the subject invention to provide
an active acoustic attenuator having an electronic cir

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
INVENTION

THE

cuitry component which operates in a deterministic fashion, in contrast to prior art trial and error circuitry functions. It is a further object of the subject invention to pro
vide an active acoustic attenuator having an electronic

Initially, it should be noted that the approach taken in the subject invention to achieve active attenuation of noise is believed to be a signi?cant departure from the

approach followed in the development of prior art sys tems. All previous known designs of systems for the
active attenuation of sound within a duct have pro

circuitry component consisting of three distinct adapt

ive ?lters each providing a separate function.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

ceeded initially with an attempt to solve the problem in its entirety. This approach invariably involves a sym bolic mathematical treatment of the subject which tends to result in theoretical generalities at the expense of

Objects in addition to the foregoing will become

obtaining speci?c design details.

The subject invention was conceived and designed with the recognition that active systems for the attenua tion of noise in ducts involve three discrete component parts including the physical system, the electronic sys tem (controller) and the coupling system between the two. This approach recognizes the parallel nature of the system and the fact that system performance cannot exceed the performance of any component part. By

apparent upon consideration of the following descrip tion taken in conjunction with the accompanying draw ings wherein: FIG. 1 is the prior art Lueg monopole acoustic atten 25
uator system. FIG. 2 is the prior art Jessel et a1 tripole or monopo

le/dipole acoustic attenuator system. FIG. 3 is the prior art Swinbanks et a1 dipole acoustic

independently developing and testing each component

attenuator system. 30 part of the system herein, it has been found that results were obtained much more quickly than in past experi FIG. 4 is the prior art Coxon et al dipole acoustic ence. This is primarily due to the fact that any problems attenuator system. encountered in system operation were much more eas FIG. 5 is a view of a simpli?ed version of the active ily identi?ed as being caused by a speci?c component of acoustic attenuator of the subject invention. FIG. 6 is a partial view of the subject invention show 35 the system, thus eliminating guess work and unneeded modi?cation. Although such a procedure seems to be ing various points of introduction of the waveguide into

the acoustic mixer. FIG. 7 is an alternate embodiment of the subject invention in which two waveguides are symmetrically introduced into the acoustic mixer. FIG. 7a is a variation of the symmetrical introduction of the waveguide(s) into the acousticmixer.
FIG. 7b is a partial cross sectional view taken gener

conceptually apparent, it is believed that progress in the

area- of active sound attenuation has been needlessly delayed to at least some extent simply by the unduely

complex approach to the problem utilized by prior art

inventors.
PHYSICAL SYSTEM COMPONENT

Referring now to the drawings and in particular to ally along line 7b7b of FIG. 7a. FIG. 5, the active acoustic attenuator of the subject 45 FIG. 8 is a graph of the attenuation achieved herein invention is labelled generally with the reference 11. As with the con?guration of the subject invention shown in discussed above, the active attenuator 11 may be FIG. 6. thought of as consisting of three distinct components FIG. 9 is a graph of the attenuation achieved herein and the discussion in this section will be directed pri with the con?guration of the subject invention shown in 50 marily to the physical system component with general FIG. 7b. references to the other components where necessary. FIG. 10 shows a multistaging function of the subject The physical system includes a duct 13 through which invention in which a single electrical circuitry compo sound from a given source propagates, an acoustic nent is used with physical system and coupling compo mixer 15 connected to duct 13, a speaker 17 which is the
nents in two separate ducts.

FIG. 11 shows a multistaging function of the subject invention in which two} sets of microphone arrays, speakers and error microphones are disposed in series within a single duct controlled by a single electrical

55 source of cancelling sound and a wave guide 19 which

connects the speaker 17 with the acoustic mixer 15. Although the acoustic mixer 15 is shown as having a

slightly larger diameter than duct 13, this geometric relationship is not required for proper performance of
active attenuator 13 and is shown herein for purposes of

circuitry component.
FIG. 12 is a partial block diagram of the digital real
ization of an adaptive ?lter with the standard Widrow

discussion and illustration only. One of the immediately apparent advantages of the

Hoff LMS algorithm. FIG. 13 is a partial block diagram of the digital real

active attenuator 11 over prior art systems is that the speaker 17 is disposed at a remote location from the ization of an adaptive ?lter herein with a modi?ed Wi 65 duct 13, and is connected to acoustic mixer 15 by an

drow-Roff LMS algorithm.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of the electrical circuitry

elongated waveguide 19 which may be provided with

valve means (not shown) to prevent dust particles, caus tic material or other debris ?owing through duct 13

component of the subject invention.

4,473,906

from damaging speaker 17. As shown in FIGS. 1-4, each of the prior art active attenuators dispose the speaker directly in the duct where the internal and
external conditions which could be encountered in

many applications would quickly damage or ruin them. The speaker 17 is not only protected from the internal environment of the duct 13 and acoustic mixer 15 by
waveguide 19, but it is contained in an enclosure 21

tively from the end of What will be considered the entire duct system. In accordance with the relationship shown below equation (1), it has been found that the wave guide 19 must be positioned at a speci?c distance from the end of acoustic mixer 15 to obtain proper attenua tion of the source signal before it leaves the duct system.

This relationship is
(1)

which protects speaker 17 from the external environ D>3l ment of the duct 13. Enclosure 21 must have a high 10 Where: transmission loss and may also be lined with acousti
cally absorbant material to further prevent the output of speaker 17 from propagating in a direction other than

D=distance of waveguide 19 from the end of the duct system.

through waveguide 19. It should be understood that waveguide 19 is completely separate from duct 13 and
acoustic mixer 15; that is, waveguide 19 is not a branch duct and thus no ?ow from the main duct 13 is carried

l=the largest dimension (height or width) of the

acoustic mixer 15 or the diameter of a round duct.

through the waveguide 19. Waveguide 19 is provided

solely for the purposes of carrying the cancelling noise from speaker 17 to acoustic mixer 15 and for isolating and protecting speaker 17 from the environment of duct
20

The relationship shown in Equation (1) expresses a threshold condition for the physical placement of waveguide 19 from the end of the duct system wherein optimum attenuation results. Equation (1)
may be expressed in terms of attenuation as fol

lows:
(2)

13. The electronic component of the active attenuator 11 AdB=B tan h (:11) is shown in its simplest form in FIG. 5 for purposes of the present discussion. A detailed description of the 25 Where:

electronics of the subject invention will be provided below including an explanation of the complete cir cuitry utilized herein. The simpli?ed version of the electronic component of active attenuator 11 includes an adaptive ?lter 23, an ampli?er 25, a phase correction 30
?lter 29 and a DC loop labelled generally with the

Ad13=attenuation in decibels ,B=a limiting maximum attenuation for a given geo

metrical relationship
l=characteristic duct dimension e.g. the diameter of
a circular duct length of a side of a square duct

longest side of a rectangular duct

a=Any number zero or greater

reference 31. The coupling component of the subject

invention, which couples the physical system with the

~Equation '(2) reveals that the attenuation obtained with

electronic system, consists of a microphone array 33 the active attenutator 11 varies according to the hyper disposed in duct 13 in advance or upstream of wave 35 bolic tangent of (11 as the location of waveguide 19 is guide 19 for sensing the source sound, and a micro moved relative to the end of the duct system which has phone 35 disposed in acoustic mixer 15 downstream been shown in FIG. 6 as the termination of acoustic from waveguide 19 for purposes to become apparent mixer 15. As mentioned above, the system performance below. of active attenuator 11 can be no better than the limita Generally, in the cancelling mode of operation, ac tion of any of its components. The geometrical limita tive attenuator 11 operates as follows. Broad band noise tion of the physical system component discussed above propagates down duct 13 and is sensed by microphone must be observed to optimize the overall attenuation array 33 which produces a signal sent to adaptive ?lter which can be achieved. 23. Adaptive ?lter 23 provides an output to drive It should be noted that while FIGS. 5 and 6 show the speaker 17 which introduces cancelling noise through 45 waveguide 19 as entering acoustic mixer 15 at a right waveguide 19 into acoustic mixer 15. Since a sound angle, this is not a requirement of the subject invention. wave consists of a sequence of compressions and rar Extensive experimentation has been conducted in efactions at a given phase and frequency, the pressure of which waveguide 19 is disposed at various angles rela
such waves can be reduced or cancelled by generat tive to acoustic mixer 15 including angles of 0, 30, 45 ing a secondary wave having compressions and rarefac 50 and 60. In each instance, the level of attenuation ob tions equal in amplitude and 180 out of phase with the served was essentially equal to that for the case in primary sound waves. The microphone 35 located which waveguide 19 is perpendicular to acoustic mixer downstream from waveguide 19 in acoustic mixer 15 15. This feature of the subject invention is particularly

senses the degree of attenuation or cancellation of the source sound after the sound waves produced by

advantageous from the standpoint of installation, since

it is anticipated that many applications may have space limitations which would require that the waveguide 19
be introduced into a duct at an angle other than 90.

speaker 17 have been combined with it. The signal from

microphone 35 is sent to adaptive ?lter 23 as an error

signal, which, in effect, is an indication of the attenua One of the primary attractions of active noise attenu tion achieved within acoustic mixer 15. The adaptive ators is their usefulness in attenuating sound of rela ?lter operates to adjust its output depending on the 60 tively low frequencies. Referring to FIG. 8, a graph of character of the error signal, so that the speaker 17 is the attenuation possible in the physical system of the driven to produce cancelling sound which is more subject invention having the con?guration shown in nearly equal in amplitude and 180 out of phase with the FIGS. 5 and 6 is illustrated. The results obtained show source sound. the decay in attenuation as waveguide 19 is moved Referring now to FIG. 6, a geometrical requirement 65 toward the end of the duct system, in accordance with for optimum operation of active attenuator 11 is illus Equations (1) and (2). The attenuation levels were ob trated. In FIG. 6, the waveguide 19 is shown entering served in a laboratory environment in a duct having acoustic mixer 15 at locations D1, D2 and D3 respec dimensions of 5 inches by 7 inches, without using the

4,473,906
electrical circuitry component of the subject invention.
As such, the data points reflect the maximum attenua tion levels which can be obtained with the physical

10
pc ab

(4)

system described above. Actual attenuation levels using

the electrical components herein have been found to be in the range of between 25 and 35 db for 5 inch by 7 inch ducts and for ducts having a wide range of dimensions. This reduction in the level oflattenuation is due to nor mal component tolerances, approximations and errors

Where:

p=density of the medium c=speed of sound U1=velocity amplitude of the cancelling sound
U2=velocity amplitude of the source sound S1=area over which the velocity amplitude is U] S2=area over which the velocity amplitude is U2

in the electronic system and because the signal to noise ratio of state-of-the-art electrical components is of the
order of 60 db, all of which act to limit the overall

system performance.
As can be observed in FIG. 8, the embodiment of the subject invention shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 is capable of 15

To achieve theoretically complete cancellation (Poo=0) Equation 4 becomes:

providing relatively high attenuation to a frequency

level where the ?rst cross mode is encountered. For a 5 inch by 7 inch duct, the ?rst cross mode occurs at ap

Or, expressed differently:

U1 : _U2 1%
S

proximately 980 Hz. Although higher frequencies could

be attenuated using passive means, the size, expense and inef?ciency of passive attenuators limits their use in many applications. It was unexpectedly discovered, however, that the range of attenuation possible with
active noise attenuator 11 could be expanded to fre quencies up to the second cross mode by introducing

()

Equations 5 and 6 reveal that the volume flow of the

cancelling source must have the same magnitude as that of the noise source but 180 out of phase, which is well known. However, the effect on the ?rst cross mode of

the cancelling sound through waveguides 19 disposed

in the symmetric con?gurations shown in FIGS. 7 and 711. FIG. 9 shows a graph for a con?guration of active
attenuators 11 essentially the same as that shown in

introducing the cancelling sound symmetrically to the

source sound is surprising, and was ?rst found empiri cally. Based on the theoretical considerations expressed above, it can be shown that the pressure at any point

FIG. 7a in which, a pair of waveguides 19 are intro duced parallel to and on either side of duct 13, which con?rms the elimination of the ?rst cross mode.

(x,y, zO) in the duct is given by:

(7)

The following description will provide a short discus

sion of the theoretical reasons for the elimination of the

?rst cross mode where cancelling sound is symmetri cally introduced into a duct carrying the source sound. Referring to FIG. 7b, which is an end view of the em bodiment of the subject invention shown in FIG. 7a, the
dimensions of the primary duct 13 are given as a and b

(Bmn) (CO5
For the conditions of cancellation of plane waves

through which the source sound is propagated, and the

given in Equations (5) and (6) above, the coef?cient Bmn can similarly be shown by conventional techniques
to be:

dimensions of the symmetrically disposed secondary

duct 14 (corresponding to waveguide .19) are given as c 2 (3) and e through which the cancelling sound is propa mn gated. Assumin that the source sound and cancelling sound propagate in the z direction, the sound pressure at 45 Thus, for the ?rst cross mode where m=l and n=0, any point (x, y, ZO) in the duct may be expressed as assuming a is greater than b, Bmo=O since the term follows: _[1 +( l)"'] in Equation (8) equals Zero for m: 1. This shows that in the con?guration of the subject invention (3) shown in FIGS. 7 and 7a, the frequency range over which relatively high acoustic attenuation may be ob tained is effectively doubled by elimination of the ?rst
cross mode.

Where:

Techniques similar to those used in time-sharing com

Am: describes a coef?cient dependent on the source 55 puters may be applied to the electronic circuitry com

COS

m" X cos "b" y:

ponent herein, with appropriate modi?cation for micro phone and loudspeaker transducer characteristics, to permit multi-stage or duplex operation of active attenu
ator 11 as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11. Referring to FIG.

Describes the propagation of waves in the x and y direction for a duct with hard walls e?kzz: describes the propagation of waves in the z

10, a separate microphone array 33, speaker 17, wave guide 19 and microphone 35 is provided for two sepa
rate ducts 13 each having an acoustic mixer 15. A single

electrical circuitry component of the subject invention,

as described above, is capable of controlling the sepa
65 rate physical system components to achieve attenuation

direction
eiw: describes a time term.

From Equation (3) conventional methods of solution

may be used to show that the sound pressure below the
?rst cross mode may be expressed as:

in both of the ducts 13. Thus, in applications where two

separate duct systems are run parallel to one another with each system carrying the same or a different

4,473,906 I

11
source sound, the active attenuator 11 herein has the

12

the guesses of the error signal become closer and closer

capability of achieving attenuation in both systems with

a single electrical circuitry component. A second application of this multi-stage or duplex capability of the subject invention is shown in FIG. 11.
In some instances it may be desireable to obtain a level

approximations of the desired error according to preset values. Not only is the trial and error method unduely lengthy (in the range of between 5 and 30 minutes), but after the process is completed the system must be manu ally shutdown to avoid system hunting or oscillation
between better and poorer results. In addition, once the trial and error process has begun in the Chaplin et a1 system, any change in the source sound in the 5 to 30

of attenuation in excess of 25 to 35 db. The con?gura tion of FIG. 11 includes two sets of microphone arrays

33, speakers 17, waveguides 19 and microphones 35

with one set being disposed downstream from the other
within the same duct 13. As the source sound propa

minutes required to complete the process will also result

in system hunting.
One key aspect of the electronic circuitry herein is that it is a deterministic system utilizing true adaptive ?lters in contrast to the trial and error approach taught in Chaplin et al. This means that the electronic circuitry of the subject invention automatically adjusts its own parameters and seeks to optimize its performance ac

gates through duct 13 it will be attenuated by the ?rst speaker 17 as discussed above, and then the attenuated
source sound will be attenuated further by the second speaker 17 in the same manner. By placing two separate physical system components of active attenuator 11 in series within a single duct 13, the attenuation obtained will be additive and result in a signi?cant reduction in

cording to speci?c criteria. Additionally, by using the

feedback principles mentioned above, the electronic the decibel level of the sound which ?nally leaves the duct system. Again, a single electrical circuitry compo 20 circuitry herein is not nearly as dependent on the toler ance requirements of acoustic devices used in many of nent of the subject invention using time-sharing tech the known prior art systems. In fact, where the permis niques is capable of controlling both sets of physical sible amplitude and phase errors of acoustic devices system components.
used in prior art systems are on the order of 1 decibel in

ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY 25 amplitude and 6 in phase, the electronic circuitry herein can tolerate amplitude and phase errors in the The second primary component of the active acoustic range of at least 10 decibels and 45 phase. By relaxing attenuator 11 of the subject invention is the electronic the tolerance requirements, the installation and mainte implementation or control of the physical system de nance of this system may be performed by technicians scribed above. A brief description of the prior art may be helpful in appreciating the advances made in the 30 of ordinary skill making the active acoustic attenuator 11 commercially viable in a variety of applications. electronic control circuitry herein. The linear summa The electronic circuitry for the active attenuator 11 tion of two equal and opposite signals has long been utilizes a modi?ed form of the Widrow-Hoff LMS recognized as one approach to producing an electronic adaptive algorithm in a true adaptive acoustic cancel or acoustic null. Several of the acoustic cancellers de veloped to date are based on the equal and opposite 35 ling con?guration. The LMS algorithm was designed for use in signal enhancement systems where the signal principle wherein a cancelling wave generated by a to noise improvement, or the noise reduction, was loudspeaker is introduced into a con?ned space such as achieved solely in the electronic circuitry. This algo a duct to reduce the pressure variations produced by rithm was signi?cantly modi?ed in the subject circuitry sound waves propagating through the duct from a given source. In the simplest model, the signal gener 40 to permit operation when the vibration or noise reduc tion and/or cancellation is to be achieved in a physical ated by the source is considered to be a pure tone repre system having inherent delays such as in an acoustic sented by a single rotating vector. The cancelling signal ?eld. The modi?cations of the Widrow-Hoff LMS algo must track the source within some maximum permissi
ble error to obtain the desired attenuation. A signi?cant

problem with this approach, which is recognized and solved by the present invention, is that the permissible
amplitude and phase errors must be held within toler
ances which are available only in the very best acoustic

45

rithm retain the signal processing advantages inherent in the original algorithm and permits these advantages
to be applied to active acoustic cancelling problems. Other adaptive algorithms exist for the solution of the quadratic error function and many of these could be
modi?ed for satisfactory operation in an acoustic can cellor. The purpose of the adaptive algorithm, as dis
cussed in detail below, is to ?nd an optimum or near

devices. For example, to obtain 20 decibels of cancella tion the errors in the microphones, speaker and elec tronics of such systems must be less than 1 decibel in amplitude and 6 in phase. As discussed in more detail below, the subject invention overcomes this problem
using a tolerance relaxation technique based on feed

back principles. Rather than requiring accuracy in all

components, a feedback system concentrates the perfor mance requirements in a few easily controlled devices. One of the most recent so-called active attenuation systems is found in US. Pat. No. 4,122,303 to Chaplin et al, which ostensibly uses an adaptive process to gen erate a cancelling wave capable of creating a null when
combined with the sound waves from a source. An

optimum solution to the cancelling ?lter problem. Such other algorithms, modi?ed in accordance with the teachings herein, can accomplish this function and should be considered within the scope of the subject invention. Before discussing the modi?cation of the LMS algo rithm in the adaptive ?lters of the subject invention, a
review of an adaptive ?lter having a standard LMS

algorithm governing its operation will be discussed.

Referring to FIG. 12, an adaptive ?lter using the stan dard Widrow-Hoff LMS algorithm is shown. The basic

examination of this system however reveals that the

element of an adaptive ?lter is known as a transversal ?lter 53 as indicated in dotted lines in FIG. 12. The electronic circuitry does not rely on a true adaptive process, but involves a trial and error approach in 65 transversal ?lter 53 can be visualized as a series of delay elements with the ?lter output being derived from a which a series of successive guesses or estimations are weighted summation of the delayed outputs. In FIG. 12, made of the error signal, which is the difference be a set of n measurements S(t) is sampled to form n sample tween the desired and actual attenuation. Eventually,