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The two-load method is commonly applied to determine the transmission loss for a muffler especially if an impedance tube rig is used. Although one procedure and algorithm is detailed in ASTM E2611, the quality of the transmission loss curve is dependent on several factors that are not discussed in detail in the standard. In this paper, several practical concerns are investigated including (1) the number of channels used in the measurement, (2) the selection of the reference channel, and (3) the choice of data processing algorithm (transfer or scattering matrix). Results are compared for a simple expansion chamber first, then for mufflers of other types. Recommendations are made for obtaining smoother transmission loss curves for various measurement methods.

The most common approach for measuring the transmission loss of a muffler is to determine the incident power by decomposition theory and the transmitted power by the plane wave approximation assuming an anechoic termination. Unfortunately, it is difficult to construct a fully anechoic termination. Thus, two alternative measurement approaches are considered, which do not require an anechoic termination: the two load method and the two-source method. Both methods are demonstrated on two muffler types: (1) a simple expansion chamber and (2) a double expansion chamber with an internal connecting tube. For both cases, the measured transmission losses were compared to those obtained from the boundary element method. The measured transmission losses compared well for both cases demonstrating that transmission losses can be determined reliably without an anechoic termination. It should be noted that the two-load method is the easier to employ for measuring transmission loss.

In this paper procedures for estimating the sound absorption coefficient when the specimen has inherently low absorption are discussed. Examples of this include the measurement of the absorption coefficient of pavements, closed cell foams and other barrier materials whose absorption coefficient is nevertheless required, and the measurement of sound absorption of muffler components such as perforates. The focus of the paper is on (1) obtaining an accurate phase correction and (2) proper correction for tube attenuation when using impedance tube methods. For the latter it is shown that the equations for tube attenuation correction in the standards underestimate the actual tube attenuation, leading to an overestimate of the measured absorption coefficient. This error could be critical, for example, when one is attempting to qualify a facility for the measurement of pass-by noise.

It was demonstrated that a bypass duct similar to a Herschel- Quincke tube could be used to increase the transmission loss of mufflers at selected frequencies. In many cases, the duct can be short and thought of as a leak. It was shown that the optimal length and cross-sectional area could be determined by using a simple optimization technique known as the Vincent Circle. Most importantly, it was demonstrated that the attenuation at low frequencies could be improved by as much as 15 dB. To prove the concept, a muffler was designed and optimized using transfer matrix theory. Then, the optimized muffler was constructed and the transmission loss measured using the two-load method. The measured results compared well with prediction from transfer matrix theory. Boundary element simulation was then used to further study the attenuation mechanism.

The theory of patch (or panel) contribution analysis is first reviewed and then applied to a motorcycle engine on a test stand. The approach is used to predict the sound pressure in the far field and the contribution from different engine components to the sound pressure at a point. First, the engine is divided into a number of patches. The transfer functions between the sound pressure in the field and the volume velocity of each patch were determined by taking advantage of vibro-acoustic reciprocity. An inexpensive monopole source is placed at the receiver point and the sound pressure is measured at the center of each patch. With the engine idling, a p-u probe was used to measure particle velocity and sound intensity simultaneously on each patch. The contribution from each patch to the target point is the multiplication of the transfer function and the volume velocity, which can be calculated from particle velocity or sound intensity. There were two target points considered.

In this paper, the transmission loss (TL) of mufflers with a built-in catalytic converter (CC) and/or a diesel particulate filter (DPF) is predicted using the boundary element method (BEM) by either modeling the CC or DPF as a block of bulk-reacting material or by using the “element-to-element four-pole connection” between two BEM substructures. The four-pole parameters of the CC or DPF can be obtained by a measurement procedure that involves using the two-source method on a test rig with a pair of transition cones followed by a few 1-D four-pole matrix inverse operations to extract the parameters. A 3-D BEM based optimization may be further applied to fine-tune the extracted four-pole parameters. To use the bulk-reacting material modeling in BEM, the four-pole parameters will have to be converted into an equivalent set of bulk-reacting material properties. Test cases including a muffler with a series connection of CC and DPF are presented in this paper.

Helmholtz resonators are often used in the design of vehicle mufflers to target tonal noise at a few specific low frequencies generated by the engine. Due to the uncertainty of temperature variations and different engine speeds, multiple resonators may have to be built in series to cover a narrow band of frequencies. Double-tuned Helmholtz resonators (DTHR) normally consist of two chambers connected in series. Openings or necks are created by punching small slots into a thin-walled tube which provide a natural neck passage to the enclosing volume of the Helmholtz resonator. In this paper, numerical analyses using both the boundary element (BEM) and the finite element (FEM) methods are performed and simulation results are compared against one another. A typical real-world muffler configuration commonly used in passenger vehicles is used in a case study.

Prior research on assessing multiple inlet and outlet mufflers is limited, and only recently have researchers begun to consider suitable metrics for multiple inlet and outlet mufflers. In this paper, transmission loss and insertion loss are defined for multiple inlet and outlet mufflers using a superposition method that can be extended to any m-inlet n-outlet muffler. Transmission loss is determined assuming that the sources and terminations are anechoic. On the other hand, insertion loss considers reflections. For both metrics, the amplitude and phase relationship between the sources should be known a priori. This paper explains both metrics, and measurement of transmission and insertion loss are demonstrated for a 2-inlet 2-outlet muffler with good agreement.

Bench tests are an important step to developing mufflers that perform adequately with acceptable pressure drop. Though the transmission loss of a muffler without flow is relatively simple to obtain using the two-load method, the presence of mean flow modifies the muffler behavior. The development of an insertion loss test rig is detailed. A blower produces the flow, and a silencer quiets the flow. Acoustic excitation is provided by a loudspeaker cluster right before the test muffler. The measurement platform allows for the measurement of flow-induced noise in the muffler. Also, the insertion loss of the muffler can be determined, and this capability was validated by comparison to a one-dimensional plane wave model.

Microperforated panel absorbers are best considered as the combination of the perforate and the backing cavity. They are sometimes likened to Helmholtz resonators. This analogy is true in the sense that they are most effective at the resonant frequencies of the panel-cavity combination when the particle velocity is high in the perforations. However, unlike traditional Helmholtz resonators, microperforated absorbers are broader band and the attenuation mechanism is dissipative rather than reactive. It is well known that the cavity depth governs the frequency bands of high absorption. The work presented here focuses on the development, modeling and testing of novel configurations of backing constructions and materials. These configurations are aimed at both dialing in the absorption properties at specific frequencies of interest and creating broadband sound absorbers. In this work, several backing cavity strategies are considered and evaluated.

Micro-perforated (MPP) panels are acoustic absorbers that are non-combustible, acoustically tunable, lightweight, and environmentally friendly. In most cases, they are spaced from a wall, and that spacing determines the frequency range where the absorber performs well. The absorption is maximized when the particle velocity in the perforations is high. Accordingly, the absorber performs best when positioned approximately a quarter acoustic wavelength from the wall, and larger cavity depths improve the low frequency absorption. At multiples of one half acoustic wavelength, the absorption is minimal. Additionally, the absorption is minimal at low frequencies due to the limited cavity depth behind the MPP. By partitioning the backing cavity, the cavity depth can be strategically increased and varied. This will improve the absorption at low frequencies and can provide absorption over a wide frequency range.

Typical automotive muffler designs contain complex internal components such as extended inlet/outlet tubes, thin baffles with eccentric holes, internal connecting tubes, perforated tubes, perforated baffles, flow plugs and sound-absorbing materials. An accurate performance prediction for highly complicated muffler designs would greatly reduce the effort in fabricating and testing of multiple design iterations for engineers. This paper discusses the use of a component-based computer simulation tool for design and analysis of exhaust mufflers. A comprehensive computer program based on the Direct Mixed-Body Boundary Element Method was developed to predict the transmission loss characteristics of muffler systems. The transmission loss is calculated by an improved four-pole method that does not require solving the boundary element matrix twice at each frequency, and hence, it is a significantly faster approach when compared to the conventional four-pole method.

This paper explores the use of inverse boundary element method to identify aeroacoustic noise sources. In the proposed approach, sound pressure at a few locations out of the flow field is measured, followed by the reconstruction of acoustic particle velocity on the surface where the noise is generated. Using this reconstructed acoustic particle velocity, the acoustic response anywhere in the field, including in the flow field, can be predicted. This approach is advantageous since only a small number of measurement points are needed and can be done outside of the flow field, and a relatively fast computational time. As an example, a prediction of vortex shedding noise from a circular cylinder is presented.

Diesel engines produce harmful exhaust emissions and high exhaust noise levels. One way of mitigating both exhaust emissions and noise is via the use of after treatment devices such as Catalytic Converters (CC), Selective Catalytic Reducers (SCR), Diesel Oxidation Catalysts (DOC), and Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF). The objective of this investigation is to characterize and simulate the acoustic performance of different types of filters so that maximum benefit can be achieved. A number of after treatment device configurations for trucks were selected and measured. A measurement campaign was conducted to characterize the two-port transfer matrix of these devices. The simulation was performed using the two-port theory where the two-port models are limited to the plane wave range in the filter cavity.

The source in an intake/exhaust system is commonly modeled as a source strength and impedance combination. Both the strength and impedance are normally measured and measurement accuracy depends on selecting an appropriate acoustic load combination. An incident wave decomposition method is proposed which is based on acoustic wave decomposition concepts instead of an electric circuit analogy providing a more straightforward approach to investigating the effect of acoustic load selection. Based on studying wave reflections in the system, the uncertainty for determining source impedance is estimated.

Insertion loss in one-third or octave bands is widely used in industry to assess the performance of large silencers and mufflers. However, there is no standard procedure for determining the transmission loss in one-third or octave bands using measured data or simulation. In this paper, assuming that the source is broadband, three different approaches to convert the narrowband transmission loss data into one-third and octave bands are investigated. Each method is described in detail. To validate the three different approaches, narrowband transmission loss data of a simple expansion chamber and a large bar silencer is converted into one-third and octave bands, and results obtained from the three approaches are demonstrated to agree well with one another.

A simplified method to model perforated tubes in mufflers is the equivalent transfer impedance approach. Various empirical formulas that consider the porosity, hole diameter, wall thickness, and flow type have been proposed to date. They normally work very well under the conditions that the formulas are intended for. However, there are situations that the empirical formulas may not be able to cover. In this paper, we propose a simple BEM-based numerical procedure to determine the transfer impedance from a small perforate sample, and then send the transfer impedance to the muffler BEM model for analysis purposes. Numerical results are verified in three test cases.

Helmholtz resonators are normally an afterthought in the design of mufflers to target a very specific low frequency, usually the fundamental firing frequency of the engine. Due to space limitations in a complex muffler design, a resonator may have to be built by punching a few small holes on a thin-walled tube to create a neck passage into a small, enclosed volume outside the tube. The short neck passage created by punching a few small holes on a thin-walled tube can pose a great challenge in numerical modeling, especially when the boundary element method (BEM) is used. In this paper, a few different BEM modeling approaches are compared to one another and to the finite element method (FEM). These include the multi-domain BEM implemented in a substructure BEM framework, modeling both sides of the thin-walled tube and the details of each small hole using the Helmholtz integral equation and the hypersingular integral equation, and modeling just the mid surface of the thin-walled tube.

This paper documents a finite element approach to predict the attenuation of muffler and silencer systems that incorporate diesel particulate filters (DPF). Two finite element models were developed. The first is a micro FEM model, where a subset of channels is modeled and transmission matrices are determined in a manner consistent with prior published work by Allam and Åbom. Flow effects are considered at the inlet and outlet to the DPF as well as viscous effects in the channels themselves. The results are then used in a macro FEM model of the exhaust system where the transmission relationship from the micro-model is used to simulate the DPF. The modeling approach was validated experimentally on an example in which the plane wave cutoff frequency was exceeded in the chambers upstream and downstream to the DPF.

The two-load method is commonly used to determine the transmission loss of a muffler or silencer. Several practical measurement considerations are examined in this paper. First of all, conical adapters are sometimes used to transition between impedance tubes and the muffler. It is demonstrated that the effect of adding the adapter can be quite significant at low frequencies especially if the adapter is short in length. The effect of changing the length of the adapter was examined via measurement and plane wave theory. Secondly, the effect of selecting the reference microphone was examined experimentally. It was found that measurements are improved by selecting a downstream reference. Finally, the effect of using different frequency response function estimation algorithms (H1, H2 and Hv) was compared sans flow. This had little effect on the measurement.