1. Introduction
Sonar is the core equipment that people use for underwater measurement and observation, and sonar detection is currently the only effective means to achieve long-range diving in the military. The practical value and significance of enhancing sonar detection capability by reducing sonar self-noise cannot be overstated. The most commonly used means to solve the problem of noise reduction in naval structures is the application of sound insulation technology in the noise transmission path. It can be divided into two ways: passive sound insulation and active sound insulation. In the current ship design and use, the traditional passive sound insulation structure design is still commonly used. It has an excellent sound insulation effect for the high-frequency region, but the effect is not satisfactory for the low-frequency region [
1,
2,
3]. Active sound insulation is a branch of active control technology [
4]. The actuator of the active sound insulation system can adjust the stiffness and damping in real time, and has strong adaptability and adjustability, so it has obvious advantages in sound insulation.
In 2017, the China Shipbuilding Science Research Center (CSRC) summarized the remarkable progress made in underwater noise research on Chinese ships over the past three decades and raised several cutting-edge fundamental issues: research in sound insulation methods should be further developed from passive sound insulation to combine active and passive sound insulation, and from single-layer sound insulation to multi-layer sound insulation; the low-frequency sound insulation performance of acoustic covering materials should be further improved, and the research of components should be developed from the basic type to the high-performance type; research on sonar self-noise should be conducted on low-frequency pressure-resistant sound insulation and sound-absorbing materials or structures [
5].
In recent years, some structures are widely used in sound insulation systems, such as box sound insulation structures, cladding, laminated structures, double-layered plates, and so on [
6,
7,
8]. Tang et al. [
9] analytically researched the influence law of the cover layer on the vibration response of the shell and plate structural system for different stiffness, mass and damping parameters. Wang [
10] researched the effect law of the design parameters of composite plates on the sound insulation system in the low-frequency region by using the Rayleigh integral method, impedance method, and modal decomposition method. Xu et al. [
11] studied the effect of sound-absorbing materials and the damping of the box structure on the acoustic performance of the sound insulation device using statistical energy analysis, and demonstrated that sound-absorbing materials can effectively improve the medium- and high-frequency sound insulation performance of box sound insulation devices, but the contribution to the low- and medium-frequency regions is weak. Gao [
12] studied the sound insulation performance of double-layer reinforced plates, infinite unidirectional double-cycle and orthogonal-cycle reinforced plates by comparing the vibration response results and concluded that the sound insulation effect of double-layer plates is better than that of single-layer plates. Kaidouchi et al. [
13] tested several materials used in aerospace composite structures by modal and steady-state analysis and concluded that the glass fiber-reinforced polymer cores with fiber-reinforced plastic finish material have better vibro-acoustic and sound transmission characteristics.
Yang [
14] took resin-based carbon fiber composite laminates as the object of study and analyzed the acoustic vibration characteristics of the acoustic system with corrugated core sandwich plate structure based on the theoretical derivation and simulation of the wave-based method. Gao et al. [
15] designed Y-shaped folded sandwich plates based on the isostatic stiffness method with a 33.19% weight reduction and a 68.4% reduction in response amplitude than the conventional reinforced plates, which have a better noise reduction performance. Langfeldt et al. [
16] made a significant shift in the mass–air resonance frequency of the double wall by adjusting the Helmholtz resonator to increase the energy transfer loss of the double wall using the induced resonance. Leng [
17] proposed a double-layer plate structure with rubber grids for low-frequency sound insulation, and although the effect is better than that of the traditional light barrier sheet, the structure still belongs to the passive sound insulation category and cannot take into account the sound insulation effect in the resonance and high-frequency regions. Bai [
18] modeled and simulated the vibration and sound radiation of a double-layer cylindrical shell system based on the impedance analysis method, and found that the solid ribbed plate has a certain effect on the sound insulation of the double-layer cylindrical shell in the medium- and high-frequency regions, and no significant effect in the frequency area below 100 Hz. Zhang et al. [
19] proposed an acoustic isolation metamaterial for distributed piezoelectric resonators, derived an acoustic prediction model, and verified its correctness by the STL simulation results of the corresponding acoustic-structural fully coupled finite element model.
In recent years, many control strategies have been proposed one after another for solving low-frequency sound insulation problems in practical engineering, such as canopy damping control, active feedback control, passive control, discrete control, optimal control, and other methods [
20,
21,
22]. Ma et al. [
23] developed an investigation on the mechanism analysis of the active control of sound transmission through an orthogonal rib-stiffened double-panel structure, and used numerical analysis to verify the accuracy of the model. Zuo et al. [
24] used the impedance analysis method to model a vibration isolation system, and introduced a feedback control link to analyze the vibration isolation performance of the active control system under different conditions. Although active control technology is used in noise reduction in areas such as high-speed trains and automobiles [
25,
26,
27], it is still not widely used. In particular, there are fewer applications in underwater sound insulation systems.
As can be seen from the above literature review, passive sound insulation structures are still mainly used with various damping sandwich layers for double-layer panel systems to solve low-frequency problems. In recent years, there has been little research on active control techniques in sound insulation applications, especially in underwater sound insulation. In this paper, the active actuator is combined with the double-layer plate structure, and the active feedback control link is added, forming an active sound insulation structure with a double-layer plate. It is applied to underwater sound insulation systems and its control strategy is analyzed. Different from the average sound pressure level commonly used in related studies, the average power flow is used as an evaluation index to analyze the sound insulation performance of the system from the perspective of energy transfer, which is more comprehensive.
In this paper, based on the theoretical model for a coupled system of elastic plate structure and water-filled acoustic cavity, the theoretical model of a sound insulation system with the double-layer plate structure and active feedback control strategy is established for the water-filled acoustic cavity. The average energy transfer of the system is derived and used as the evaluation index of the active sound insulation effect. Then, MATLAB numerical simulations are used to analyze the average energy transfer characteristics of the system under continuous variation of each feedback parameter. Finally, some important conclusions are drawn.
3. Simulation Calculation and Analysis of Active Feedback Sound Insulation Strategy in Frequency Domain
In this paper, the average energy input
in the acoustic cavity is calculated by a MATLAB environment simulation and used as an evaluation index of the sound insulation effect. In order not to lose the generality of the system, the active sound insulation units are laid out symmetrically, and the number of arrangements is four. As mentioned in
Section 2.2, the time lag
of the active actuator can be neglected in the simulation due to its extremely small value. To simplify the simulation and analysis, all active actuators are used with the same specifications, so that the electrical time constant
, the amplifier gain parameter
, and the control circuit resistance
. Additionally,
, except for
,
,
, and
. Let
. Then, Equation (32) can be simplified as follows:
From Equation (47), the feedback parameter matrixes , , , , and are only linearly related to , , , and . To further facilitate variable analysis, let all the actuators of the system have the same feedback signal controller gain at their respective installation points, that is .
The settings of the system’s basic parameters are given here, as shown in
Table 1.
To completely represent the effect of the continuous variation of the feedback parameter values in the frequency domain on the average energy transfer
in the acoustic cavity, the
values in the frequency domain range from 0 to 1000 Hz for different values of the feedback parameters are calculated numerically to generate the comparison graphs in this section. The 3D image of surf (X, Y, Z) and its corresponding plane three views are generated by simulation, where the feedback parameter value
—frequency
—average energy input
in the acoustic cavity is the X-Y-Z axis of the 3D image. The 2D images and 3D images are analyzed by comprehensive comparison, as shown in
Figure 2,
Figure 3,
Figure 4,
Figure 5,
Figure 6 and
Figure 7.
In
Figure 2,
Figure 3,
Figure 4,
Figure 5,
Figure 6 and
Figure 7, both Figures (a) and (b) show the trends and comparisons of the curves of
in the frequency domain from 0 to 1000 Hz for several different sets of feedback parameter values at
and
, respectively. To more clearly and intuitively represent the distribution and variation of resonance peaks with smaller values, the scale value of the
vertical coordinate is
, where
is a reference power flow and takes the value of 1. The unit is also converted to dimensionless dB. Both Figures (c) show the distribution of the main resonance peak in the frequency domain for continuously varying
. Figures (d), (e), and (f) show the planar views of Figures (c) in the X-Y, X-Z, and Y-Z directions, respectively. Here, there is no logarithmic treatment of the vertical coordinate
, and the order of magnitude of the
values at the main resonance peaks in the low-frequency region is much larger than at other places. Therefore, except for these main resonance peaks, the
values at other places are basically shown to converge to zero in these figures.
In this simulation example, the area near the first order resonance peak is defined as the low-frequency region, which ranges from about 0 to 200 Hz; the area where the second- and third-order resonance peaks are located is defined as the medium-frequency region, which ranges from about 200 to 400 Hz; the area after the third-order resonance peak is defined as the high-frequency region, which ranges from about 400 Hz to more. The specific analysis of
Figure 2,
Figure 3,
Figure 4,
Figure 5,
Figure 6 and
Figure 7 is as follows.
As shown in
Figure 2a,b, the overall
curve shows a gradual sinking trend as
increases, but there is a local rising in the high-frequency region at
. In the low- and medium-frequency region, the first resonance peak gradually shifts to the left with the increase of
, and its peak is also reduced. In the high-frequency region,
does not make the problem solved, where the system’s higher-order modes are excited and trigger a large number of peaks. This indicates that properly assigned
can optimize the system’s sound insulation in the low- and medium-frequency region, but improperly assigned
may deteriorate it instead. However, the effect of
on the optimization of system sound insulation in the high-frequency region is not obvious. In this simulation, the significant effective sound insulation frequency range is about 1~400 Hz with proper assignment of
.
Combining
Figure 2c–f, when
or
or
, the first resonance peak is basically eliminated, which indicates that the sound insulation effect of the system is well. When
, the first resonance peaks still exist, but they all move to the lower-frequency region, which indicates that the system has a certain sound insulation effect. However, from the peak perspective, the first resonance peak is significantly raised at
. This indicates that the
at this point exacerbates the resonance effect and deteriorates the system’s sound insulation.
In summary, the absolute displacement feedback control method plays a significant role for the system’s sound insulation in the low- and medium-frequency domain. The vast majority of the feedback parameter values are within the effective range of values and can optimize the system’s sound insulation in the low- and medium-frequency region. However, this control method is not ideal for system’s sound insulation in the high-frequency region, and even some inappropriate values of feedback parameters can deteriorate the system’s high-frequency sound insulation instead.
As shown in
Figure 3a,b, the overall
curve shows a gradual sinking trend as
increases. In the low- and medium-frequency regions, the first resonance peak gradually shifts to the left with the increase of
, and its peak is also reduced. In the high-frequency region,
does not make the problem solved, where the system’s higher-order modes are excited and trigger a large number of peaks. This indicates that properly assigned
can optimize the system’s sound insulation in the low- and medium-frequency region. However, the effect of
on the optimization of system sound insulation in the high-frequency region is not obvious. In this simulation, the significant effective sound insulation frequency range is about 1~400 Hz with proper assignment of
.
Combining
Figure 3c–f, when
or
, the first resonance peak is basically eliminated, which indicates that the sound insulation effect of the system is well. When
(except 0), the first resonance peaks still exist, but they all move to the lower-frequency region, which indicates that the system has a certain sound insulation effect.
In summary, the absolute velocity feedback control method plays a significant role for the system’s sound insulation in the low- and medium-frequency domain. Almost all feedback parameter values are validly taken and can optimize the system’s sound insulation in the low and medium frequency region. However, this control method is not ideal for system’s sound insulation in the high-frequency region.
As shown in
Figure 4a,b, the overall
curve shows a gradual sinking trend as
increases. In the low- and medium-frequency regions, the first resonance peak gradually shifts to the left with the increase of
, and its peak is also reduced. In the high-frequency region, the number of large peaks triggered by the excitation of the higher-order modes of the system is reduced. This indicates that a properly assigned
has a significant optimization effect on the system’s sound insulation in both the low and medium-frequency regions as well as the high-frequency region. In this simulation, the significant effective sound insulation frequency range is 1~1000 Hz with proper assignment of
.
Combining
Figure 4c–f, when
or
, the first resonance peak is basically eliminated, which indicates that the sound insulation effect of the system is well. When
(except 0), the first resonance peaks still exist, but they all move to the lower-frequency region, which indicates that the system has a certain sound insulation effect. However, from the peak perspective, the first resonance peak is significantly raised at
. This indicates that the
at this point exacerbates the resonance effect and deteriorates the system’s sound insulation.
In summary, the absolute acceleration feedback control method plays a significant role for the system’s sound insulation in the low- and medium-frequency domain. The vast majority of the feedback parameter values are within the effective range of values and can optimize the system’s sound insulation in the low- and medium-frequency region. At the same time, this control method produces a significant effect on the system’s high-frequency sound insulation. In addition, the average energy input amplitude-frequency response of the system is most sensitive under the absolute acceleration feedback control method compared to the absolute displacement and velocity feedback control methods.
As shown in
Figure 5a,b, the overall
curve has a slight rightward shift as
increases. In the high-frequency region,
does not make the problem solved, where the system’s higher-order modes are excited and trigger a large number of peaks, and even the
value increases slightly. From the point of view of resonant frequencies, improperly assigned
can slightly deteriorate the system’s sound insulation in the low- and medium-frequency regions. From the point of view of the average energy input value, improperly assigned
can also deteriorate the system’s sound insulation in the high-frequency region. In this simulation, the significant effective sound insulation frequency range is about 1~400 Hz with proper assignment of
.
Combining
Figure 5c,f, in the narrow region on the right side very close to
, the first resonance peak is basically eliminated, which indicates that the sound insulation effect of the system is well. Outside this narrow region, although the peak is reduced compared to that at
, it is not very significant. In addition to the first resonance peak, the second and third resonance peaks are still present. Therefore, the sound insulation effect of the system is not ideal at this time.
In summary, the effective range of the feedback parameters for the relative displacement feedback control method is narrow. Within the effective range of values, it can improve the system’s low- and medium-frequency sound insulation capability. However, outside the effective range, it does not play a role in the system’s low- and medium-frequency sound insulation, and even plays a deteriorating role for the system’s high-frequency sound insulation. On the whole, the sound insulation effect under the relative displacement feedback control method is worse than that of the absolute displacement feedback control method.
As shown in
Figure 6a,b, the overall
curve has a slight rightward shift as
increases. In the high-frequency region,
does not make the problem solved, where the system’s higher-order modes are excited and trigger a large number of peaks, and even the
value increases slightly. From the point of view of resonant frequencies, improperly assigned
can slightly deteriorate the system’s sound insulation in the low- and medium-frequency regions. From the point of view of the average energy input value, improperly assigned
can also deteriorate the system’s sound insulation in the high-frequency region. In this simulation, the significant effective sound insulation frequency range is about 1~400 Hz with proper assignment of
.
Combining
Figure 6c–f, in the narrow region on the right side very close to
, the first resonance peak is basically eliminated, which indicates that the sound insulation effect of the system is well. Outside this narrow region, the peak values are all significantly lower than at
, indicating that the system also has some sound insulation effect. However, there is an elevated resonance peak in the local region on the left side very close to
. This indicates that the
at this time exacerbates the resonance effect and deteriorates the system’s sound insulation.
In summary, the effective range of the feedback parameters for the relative velocity feedback control method is narrow. Within the effective range of values, it can improve the system’s low- and medium-frequency sound insulation capability. However, outside the effective range, it does not play a role in the system’s low- and medium-frequency sound insulation, and even plays a deteriorating role in the system’s high-frequency sound insulation. On the whole, the sound insulation effect under the relative velocity feedback control method is worse than that of the absolute velocity feedback control method.
As shown in
Figure 7a,b, the overall
curve has a slight rightward shift as
increases. Small fluctuations precede the first resonance peak in the low- and medium-frequency domains under the action of
. In the high-frequency region,
does not make the problem solved, where the system’s higher-order modes are excited and trigger a large number of peaks, and even the
value increases slightly. From the point of view of resonant frequencies, improperly assigned
can slightly deteriorate the system’s sound insulation in the low- and medium-frequency regions. From the point of view of the average energy input value, improperly assigned
can also deteriorate the system’s sound insulation in the high-frequency region. In this simulation, the significant effective sound insulation frequency range is about 1~400 Hz with proper assignment of
.
Combining
Figure 7c–f, in the narrow region on the right side very close to
, the first resonance peak is basically eliminated, which indicates that the sound insulation effect of the system is well. Outside this narrow region, although the peak is reduced compared to that at
, it is not very significant. In addition to the first resonance peak, the second and third resonance peaks are still present. Some values of
cause a fluctuation in the frequency domain before the first resonance peak of the system. This indicates that the system’s sound insulation deteriorates at this time.
In summary, the effective range of the feedback parameters for the relative acceleration feedback control method is narrow. Within the effective range of values, it can improve the system’s low- and medium-frequency sound insulation capability. However, outside the effective range, it does not play a role in the system’s low- and medium-frequency sound insulation, and even plays a deteriorating role in the system’s low-, medium-, and high-frequency sound insulation. On the whole, the sound insulation effect under the relative acceleration feedback control method is worse than that of the absolute acceleration feedback control method.