A Study of Active Trim Panels for Interior Noise Reduction in an Aircraft Fuselage

An experiment has been conducted to evaluate the use of force actuators on an aircraft fuselage model interior trim panel as the control element for active control of interior noise. These experiments were conducted on a composite model of a commuter class aircraft. A trim panel was designed specifically for this evaluation, constructed in three large sections and hard mounted to the ring frames of the primary structure. Piezoceramic actuators were bonded to the outer surface of the trim panels. Studies of the interior pressure response due to both the primary source alone and control source(s) alone were conducted as well as the control cases. Initial results provided global reductions of 5 dB for the case where the response was dominated by an acoustic resonance. In all other cases, only local reductions at the error microphones were attained. This was attributed to very strong mismatches between the interior response driven by the primary source and that driven by the control sources. This result is in strong contrast to previous results attained for control actuators attached to the primary structure.

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