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Introduction to Acoustics

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1070 Part H Engineering <strong>Acoustics</strong><br />

Part H 25.4<br />

nomenon is typical of vibrating panels of low radiation<br />

efficiency and demonstrates that spatial averaging of the<br />

sound intensity very near such sources is problematic.<br />

The circulation of sound energy, which implies that some<br />

regions act as sources without actually radiating <strong>to</strong> the<br />

far field, has led Williams <strong>to</strong> introduce the concept of<br />

supersonic intensity, which is the part of the sound intensity<br />

associated with wavenumber components within<br />

the radiation circle, in other words, the part of the intensity<br />

associated with radiation <strong>to</strong> the far field [25.61].<br />

One cannot determine the supersonic intensity with an<br />

ordinary sound intensity probe, though; wavenumber<br />

processing of near-field holographic data is require.<br />

25.4.2 Sound Power Determination<br />

One of the most important applications of sound intensity<br />

measurement is the determination of the sound<br />

power of operating machinery in situ. Sound power determination<br />

using intensity measurements is based on<br />

(25.7), which shows that the sound power of a source is<br />

given by the integral of the normal component of the intensity<br />

over a surface that encloses the source, also in<br />

the presence of other sources outside the measurement<br />

surface. The analysis of errors and limitations presented<br />

in Sect. 25.3.1 leads <strong>to</strong> the conclusion that the sound<br />

intensity method is suitable for determining the sound<br />

power of stationary sources in stationary background<br />

noise provided that the pressure-intensity index is within<br />

the dynamic capability of the measurement system. On<br />

the other hand, the method is not suitable in nonstationary<br />

background noise (because the sound field will<br />

change during the measurement); it cannot be used for<br />

determining the sound power of very weak sources of<br />

low-frequency noise (because of large random errors<br />

caused by electrical noise in the microphone signals);<br />

and the absorption of the source under test should be negligible<br />

compared with the <strong>to</strong>tal absorption in the room<br />

where the measurement takes place (otherwise the sound<br />

power will be underestimated because the measurement<br />

gives the net sound power).<br />

The surface integral can be approximated either by<br />

sampling at discrete points or by scanning manually or<br />

with a robot over the surface. With the scanning approach,<br />

the intensity probe is moved continuously over<br />

the measurement surface. A typical scanning path is<br />

shown in Fig. 25.24. The scanning procedure, which was<br />

introduced by Chung in the late 1970s on a purely empirical<br />

basis, was regarded with much skepticism for more<br />

than a decade [25.63], but is now generally regarded as<br />

more accurate and very much faster and more convenient<br />

than the procedure based on fixed points [25.62,64,65].<br />

A moderate scanning rate, say 0.5m/s, and a reasonable<br />

scan line density should be used, say 5 cm between<br />

adjacent lines if the surface is very close <strong>to</strong> the source,<br />

20 cm if it is further away. However, whereas it may be<br />

possible <strong>to</strong> use the method based on discrete positions<br />

if the source is operating in cycles (simply by measuring<br />

over a full cycle at each position) one cannot use the<br />

scanning method under such conditions; both the source<br />

under test and possible extraneous noise sources must<br />

be perfectly stationary.<br />

Usually the measurement surface is divided in<strong>to</strong><br />

a number of segments that are convenient <strong>to</strong> scan. The<br />

pressure-intensity index of each segment and the accuracy<br />

of each partial sound power estimate depends<br />

on whether (25.29) is satisfied or not, but it follows<br />

from (25.30) that it is the global pressure-intensity index<br />

associated with the entire measurement surface that<br />

determines the accuracy of the estimate of the (<strong>to</strong>tal)<br />

radiated sound power. It may be impossible <strong>to</strong> satisfy<br />

(25.29) on a certain segment, for example because the net<br />

sound power passing through the segment takes a very<br />

small value because of extraneous noise, but if the global<br />

criterion is satisfied then the <strong>to</strong>tal sound power estimate<br />

will nevertheless be accurate.<br />

Theoretical considerations seem <strong>to</strong> indicate the<br />

existence of an optimum measurement surface that minimizes<br />

measurement errors [25.66]. In practice one uses<br />

a surface with a simple shape at some distance, say<br />

25–50 cm, from the source. If there is a strong reverberant<br />

field or significant ambient noise from other sources,<br />

the measurement surface should be chosen <strong>to</strong> be somewhat<br />

closer <strong>to</strong> the source under study. One particular<br />

problem is that one might be tempted <strong>to</strong> forget <strong>to</strong> close<br />

a measurement surface that is very close <strong>to</strong>, say, a panel<br />

or a window by measuring only the component of the<br />

Fig. 25.24 Typical scanning path on a measurement surface<br />

(After [25.62])

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