A study on active sound design and control method for vehicle interior hybrid noise to enhance sound quality

With the current popularity of new energy vehicles and the continuous development of intelligent cabin technology, the demand for acoustic comfort within automotive cockpit is increasing. A multi-channel feedforward active sound design and control method was proposed to improve the sound quality of the hybrid broadband and narrowband noise inside the test vehicle. The method selectively designed the target amplitudes for broadband noise and narrowband noise in the vehicle to satisfy passengers comfort, mainly including the sound design phase and the control phase. During the sound design phase, objective sound quality parameter analysis was first conducted on the noise of the prototype vehicle, followed by an evaluation of the sound quality with semantic differential method. An active acoustic design strategy focusing on comfort, motivation sense and annoyance perception were proposed, including a formula for the target amplitude of adjustment order and sound pressure level. The sound quality was associated with adjustment order and target noise, and design values were determined through quantitative analysis of the relationship between design variables and sound quality. During the control phase, a harmonic separation subsystem was used to decouple broadband noise from narrowband noise, with the design target values achieved through two adaptive filters. The active sound control algorithm was analyzed for its control performance and robustness through simulations and real vehicle experimental measurements in this paper. The results demonstrate that, under various working conditions, the active control system can achieve specific amplitude of broadband and narrowband components inside the vehicle. Meanwhile, it does not significantly amplify noise in other frequency bands, and the system remains stable throughout the entire control phase. Moreover, through subjective evaluation of the sound quality after control, it is proved that the active noise design and control method can enhance sound quality inside vehicle.