Development of topology optimization techniques for noise pollution minimization in acoustic and fluid-structure problems

Abstract

Noise pollution has become a cause of major health problems, such as sleep, cardiovascular or cognitive alterations. In urban areas, the high values of transport and other human-activity-related noise can be especially harmful. This issue is a large subject of study, due to the broad nature of noise and its range of possible sources (and therefore the potential solutions to alleviate each of them). This Thesis focuses on the minimization of (i) exhaust system noise, which can be addressed by the use of mufflers (which in turn have other applications, such as in HVAC systems, i.e., heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), and (ii) general noise and vibration caused by transport, such as railway rolling noise, and the use of sound barriers to alleviate it.On the one hand, mufflers (which can be divided into reactive, dissipative, and hybrid configurations) were long ago adopted in the exhaust line, but also the use of catalytic converters and diesel particulate filters has become spread, and, while their use responds to environmental rather than noise reduction reasons, they have an impact in the acoustic performance of the exhaust system. Diverse techniques for the modelling of sound propagation within ducts and the other aforementioned devices are reviewed, and several optimization schemes are proposed for the minimization of noise transmission. This includes (i) the sizing optimization of mufflers (including reactive and dissipative chambers), (ii) the topology optimization of the dissipative material (its density layout) within the dissipative chamber, and (iii) the sizing optimization of exhaust aftertreatment devices (catalytic converters and diesel particulate filters).On the other hand, sound barriers have a wide range of applications, such as traffic noise barriers, train wheel fairings or even HVAC duct coatings. At this point, it is required to pair the acoustic and the elastic problems at the air-structure boundary to obtain the vibroacoustic problem. A hybrid displacement-pressure formulation is recalled here and applied to several case studies, in order to obtain acoustically-optimized elastic designs. vii D'altra banda, l'apantallament acústic té una àmplia gamma d'aplicacions, com ara les barreres acústiques de trànsit, carenats de rodes de trens o fins i tot revestiments de conductes HVAC. En aquest punt, cal acoblar els problemes acústic i elàstic al contorn aire-estructura per obtenir el problema vibroacústic. Aquí es planteja una formulació híbrida en desplaçament-pressió i s'aplica a diversos casos pràctics per obtenir dissenys elàstics acústicament optimitzats.xi