ACTIVE NOISE CONTROL OF ACOUSTIC SOURCES USING SPHERICAL HARMONICS EXPANSION AND A GENETIC ALGORITHM: SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENT

Abstract A general method is presented to optimize transducer location in an active noise control problem. The method includes two parts. First, the actuator configuration is determined by using a model of the primary field which is a spherical harmonics expansion. In the second part, a genetic algorithm is used to determine the error sensor configuration. This method is then applied to two real acoustic sources: a dipole and an electrical transformer. In numerical simulations, the primary field of both sources measured in an anechoic room was used to determine the active control configurations. Then, the actuator and error sensor arrangement was tested in an active control experiment involving both primary, sources.