Noise barrier using hybrid ANC system (Supression of the noise enhancement caused by the waterbed effect and investigation of the noise attenuation performace under various sound field configurations)

In this paper, the hybrid active noise control (HB-ANC) system applied in the active noise barrier (ANB) is improved, and the noise attenuation performace of the ANB is invetigated under four different sound field configurations. This hybird ANB reduces the diffraction noise from top of the ANB and the noise propagated to the head position of the target person behind the ANB simultaneously to achieve higher noise attenuation. However, the waterbed effect of the feedback control part of the HB-ANC system will cause noise enhancement at some frequencies in the control area. In order to solve this problem, the HB-ANC system is improved by adding a filter to cancel the noise enhancement caused by the waterbed effect. Then, the noise attenuation performance of the hybrid ANB under four sound field configurations is evaluated by simulations. The sound field configurations are set up to investigate how the diffraction from side of the ANB and the reflection influence the performance of the ANB. An experiment in the anechoic chamber is also conducted. The results indicate that the low frequency noise attenuation can be obtained in a wide area behind the ANB, and at the head position of the person, the noise attenuation can be ensured within a wider frequency range, even for the sound fields where the uncontrolled diffraction from side and the reflection exist.