The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

Elliott S.J., Zhang J., Lai Ch.K. and Cheer J.

Active sound control involves cancelling unwanted noise using loudspeakers. The technique is now increasingly being used by automotive manufacturers, including Honda, BMW, JLR and Hyundai, to reduce the noise inside cars. As higher-frequency noises are controlled, however, the system’s performance and stability becomes sensitive to the movement of passengers within the vehicle. This apparently requires that the system be tested for an enormous number of possible configurations of passenger positions. This paper shows that the effect of combinations of different passenger configurations can be calculated from only a few measurements of individual movements, and so enormously simplifies the process of robust design.

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