Design of a broadband active silencer using μ-synthesis

A robust spatially feedforward controller is developed for broadband attenuation of noise in ducts. To meet the requirements of robust performance and robust stability in the presence of plant uncertainties, a μ-synthesis procedure via D–K iteration is exploited to obtain the optimal controller. This approach considers uncertainties as modelling errors of the nominal plant in high frequency and is implemented using a floating point digital signal processor (DSP). Experimental investigation was undertaken on a finite-length duct to justify the proposed controller. The μ- controller is compared to other control algorithms such as the H2 method, the H∞ method and the filtered-U least mean square (FULMS) algorithm. Experimental results indicate that the proposed system has attained 25.8 dB maximal attenuation in the band 250–650 Hz.