IMP&CTS - IN SITU MEASUREMENT METHOD FOR PREDICTION & CHARACTERISATION AND DIAGNOSTIC TESTING OF STRUCTURE-BORNE SOUND
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Salford
Department Name: Res Inst for the Built and Human Env
Abstract
At the heart of this proposal is a development in the theory of structure-borne sound. Mathematically it is a fairly simple step from existing theory, but the practical implications of the step are profound. Potentially it opens a whole new paradigm in measurement methods applied for structure-borne sound, and in particular for characterisation of structure-borne sound sources like pumps, fans, domestic equipment, auxiliary equipment in aircraft, lift motors, engines in ships and many other applications.'Characterisation' means acquiring data to describe the source, for example to a purchaser, consultant, planner or regulator. It is needed to help prevent, reduce and regulate unwanted structure-borne sound. The new method is an in situ method which has several major advantages over existing methods. Most significantly, it can be applied by taking measurements in a normal installation of the structure-borne sound source. Existing characterisation method cannot be applied in this way and so are unable to handle a wide range of important sources like, for example, roof mounted wind turbines. The measurement techniques required to implement the new theory are already well-developed so the approach is ripe for exploitation in real industrial contexts. Hence, the core of the proposed work lies in implementing the in situ method in three, carefully selected industrial case studies. In Case study 1 roof-mounted wind turbines will be characterised. This task will be a collaboration with Encraft Ltd. who have, over the last 12 months, carried out the most extensive trials of small wind turbines ever conducted and have quickly acquired a world-wide reputation as a result. They will provide access to two installations, expertise in turbine operation and meteorological instrumentation. We believe the in situ method to be the only method likely to be implementable for wind turbines. This task is urgent because up to 6% of the UK's potential electricity generating capacity together with a potential 250M 'small wind' industry are currently effectively 'on hold' purely because of concerns about structure-borne sound. In Case study 2 the in situ method will be implemented for diagnostic testing of road noise in a road vehicle. The in situ approach has two major potential advantages over conventional methods: a 30% reduction in test time and the fact that the data obtained can potentially be used as input to numerical models of vehicles. It is extremely difficult and costly to obtain this data by any other means. This task will be a collaboration with Ricardo Consulting Ltd. the world leading, UK-based automotive technology company. They will supply rolling road facilities, a vehicle and extensive test equipment. They will conduct a parallel investigation on the same vehicle using their conventional method for comparison with the in situ results.In Case Study 3 the in situ method will be extended further to the prediction of structure-borne sound from a fuel pump motor in an aircraft. The motor will be characterised by taking measurements on one installation and the data will be used to predict the structure-borne sound level in a different structure. It is proposed that this task will be conducted in collaboration with The Boeing Company and one of their UK suppliers of fuel pump motors (although their participation cannot be authorised until funding is confirmed). This case will both validate the in situ method's use for prediction purposes and provide an example of how the data can be transferred within the supply chain. In the final task, the results from the three case studies will be synthesised and published. We also aim to bring in industrially funded work during this period to enable the team to become self-supporting.
Organisations
- University of Salford (Lead Research Organisation)
- Bruel and Kjaer (Collaboration)
- Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) (Collaboration)
- Farrat Isolevel (Collaboration)
- Bentley Motors (Collaboration)
- Dyson (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE (Collaboration)
- Ricardo UK Ltd (Collaboration)
- Encraft (Collaboration)
- Encraft (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Ricardo (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
Publications
Andrew Moorhouse (Author)
(2010)
Noise and vibration from building mounted micro wind turbines. Part 2: Results of measurements and analysis.
Andy Moorhouse (Author)
(2010)
Noise and vibration from building mounted micro wind turbines. Part 1: Review and proposed methodology.
Andrew Moorhouse (Author)
(2010)
An in situ measurement method for characterisation of structure-borne sound sources
Andrew Moorhouse (Author)
(2011)
Structure-borne sound from building-mounted wind turbines
Moorhouse A
(2013)
The "round trip" theory for reconstruction of Green's functions at passive locations.
in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Moorhouse A
(2011)
Some relationships for coupled structures and their application to measurement of structural dynamic properties in situ
in Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing
Description | 1. The blocked force method was validated as a method for characterising the structure-borne sound from building-mounted wind turbines 2. The blocked force method was successfully implemented into a novel 'in situ transfer path analysis' method which quantifies the transmission paths for e.g. road noise through the structure into a vehicle cabin - compared with conventional method it has the significant advantage that it does not require disassembly of the vehicle 3. A novel method (the 'round |
Exploitation Route | The blocked force method developed in the project has been used in a commercial context to solve problems faced by European and US industry. At least 3 automotive companies, one rail rolling stock manufacturer have adopted the method independently to solve industrial problems. Finding 1 led to an official guide, funded by three government departments, for prediction of structure-borne sound from building-mounted wind turbines for use by planners and legislators |
Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Construction Energy Environment Transport Other |
Description | The findings have been taken up within the aerospace, automotive, energy and transport sectors and an International Standard is currently at Committee Draft stage. Automotive - the method has been taken by at least the following companies: 1 German, 1 Swedish OEM; tier 1 suppliers in Japan, Germany; 1 automotive consultancy company in the UK. It is used for characterisation of vibrating components (as intended in the proposal). Aerospace - round robin testing conducted by major airline company and 3 of their suppliers with a view to forming an industry standard Transport - research investigation conducted by 1 Canadian company, the method is adopted by a major French rolling stock manufacturer. Energy - the method used formed the basis of national guidelines for the structure-borne noise from building-mounted wind turbines in the UK. These are only the ones we know about and there are likely to be others, especially since potential users often do not discuss their methods. Standardisation - a committee of 10 experts from France, Germany, the Netherlands, USA, Sweden and Spain has been assembled as Working Group WG57 within Technical Committee TC43/SC1 of ISO. The group has started work on a standard, ISO20270. The first meeting was held in Milan in September 2015, the second in Leuven in September 2016 |
First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Energy,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Transport |
Impact Types | Economic |
Description | Standard practice in mechanical industries |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | The method developed in the grant has been: (a) formed the basis for a Draft International Standard (expected to become a full ISO in 2019) (b) been the subject of an international webinar for training engineers by Siemens |
URL | http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/global/en/webinar/transfer-path-analysis-tpa/44276 |
Description | DEFRA |
Amount | £134,889 (GBP) |
Funding ID | NANR244 |
Organisation | Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2009 |
End | 09/2010 |
Description | Design by Science |
Amount | £495,573 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/P005489/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 12/2016 |
End | 05/2019 |
Description | Knowledge Transfer Partnership |
Amount | £208,281 (GBP) |
Funding ID | |
Organisation | Innovate UK |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2017 |
End | 04/2020 |
Description | Towards Zero Prototyping |
Amount | £197,839 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 38391-241226 |
Organisation | Innovate UK |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2014 |
End | 03/2016 |
Description | B&K |
Organisation | Bruel and Kjaer |
Country | Denmark |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Expertise in automotive NVH |
Collaborator Contribution | In kind contributions to acoustic simulation hardware and software |
Impact | None so far |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Bentley |
Organisation | Bentley Motors |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Expertise in vibro-acoustics and specifically in characterisation of structure-borne sound sources. |
Collaborator Contribution | Funding for one PhD and several taught MSc students. |
Impact | One PhD thesis. Several MSc student project reports. Several small contract research projects. One unfunded and one funded EPSRC bid |
Start Year | 2011 |
Description | Blocked force method partners |
Organisation | Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | We carried out measurements and analysis on case studies provided by partners |
Collaborator Contribution | Partners provided case studies for trial of the blocked force method |
Impact | Joint publications are listed in the publications section |
Start Year | 2009 |
Description | Blocked force method partners |
Organisation | Encraft |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | We carried out measurements and analysis on case studies provided by partners |
Collaborator Contribution | Partners provided case studies for trial of the blocked force method |
Impact | Joint publications are listed in the publications section |
Start Year | 2009 |
Description | Blocked force method partners |
Organisation | Ricardo UK Ltd |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | We carried out measurements and analysis on case studies provided by partners |
Collaborator Contribution | Partners provided case studies for trial of the blocked force method |
Impact | Joint publications are listed in the publications section |
Start Year | 2009 |
Description | Dyson |
Organisation | Dyson |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | The blocked force method formed an essential element in the construction of a Virtual Acoustic Prototype for a Dyson product. |
Collaborator Contribution | Dyson committed test facilities, test products and skilled engineering specialists to implement the method within the compnay. |
Impact | Banwell, G., Hopper, H., Moorhouse, A., Elliott, A., & Meggitt, J. METHODS FOR AURALISING SOUNDS WITH TONAL COM-PONENTS. ICSV Florence, Italy, 2015 |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | Farratt Isolevel |
Organisation | Farrat Isolevel |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Expertise in the use of blocked forces for prediction of building vibration for 3 year KTP (KTP010582) |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise, funding and site access for KTP |
Impact | 1 international and 1 national conference papers |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | University of Cambridge |
Organisation | University of Cambridge |
Department | Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Expertise in vibro-acoustic measurement |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise in vibro-acoustic modelling |
Impact | Non so far |
Start Year | 2010 |