Estimation of coupling loss factors employed in the statistical energy analysis of kitchen appliances

Abstract

Statistical energy analysis continues to be an important framework of study that is helping appliance manufacturers to design quieter machines, particularly as household machinery has now moved into the living space with fashionable open kitchens and designs for small apartments. Precise SEA models depend on good estimates of coupling loss factors. There are several analytical, numerical and experimental approaches reported in the literature to help compute these CLFs; published results show good comparison when data are correlated with experimental measurements. Accurate CLFs estimations depend on many factors, amongst them we can mention the geometry of structural components, structure-to-structure type of coupling, material composition, type and number of cavities, quality of the appliance installation and noise source frequency range. This paper presents a survey of different methods that have successfully been used for CLFs estimation. The objective is to help the new product department in the task of defining a procedure to accurately model cabinets that are designed for domestic machinery. The authors layout a procedure that will be used for CLFs calculation of new equipment that is currently being developed by an appliance manufacturer.