Application of the Independent

Components Analysis in the Reconstruction

of Acoustic Sources in Duct Systems

Raja Dhief, Mohamed Taktak, Dhouha

Tounsi, Ali Akrout & Mohamed Haddar

Arabian Journal for Science and

Engineering

ISSN 2193-567X

Arab J Sci Eng

DOI 10.1007/s13369-016-2196-1

1 23
 ARCHIVES OF ACOUSTICS
Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 49–66 (2020)
DOI: 10.24425/aoa.2020.132481

Research Paper

Investigation on the Effects of Acoustic Liner Variation and Geometry

Discontinuities on the Acoustic Performance of Lined Ducts

Raja DHIEF(1), (2) , Amine MAKNI(2) , Mohamed TAKTAK(1), (2)∗

Mabrouk CHAABANE(1) , Mohamed HADDAR(2)
(1)
Faculty of Sciences of Sfax
BP 1171, 3000 Sfax, Tunisia
∗
Corresponding Author e-mail: mohamed.taktak@fss.rnu.tn
(2)
Laboratory of Mechanics, Modeling and Production (LA2MP)
National School of Engineers of Sfax, University of Sfax
Sfax, Tunisia

(received April 23, 2019; accepted November 4, 2019 )

Noise reduction inside waveguide systems has gained momentum owing to a great interest in it. To
attenuate the sound in a broad frequency range, this study aims to compare the effects of two acoustic
liners, a perforated plate backed by an air cavity (PP-Air cavity), or by a porous material (PP-PM), on the
acoustic behaviour of lined ducts using a numerical model to compute the multimodal scattering matrix.
From this matrix, the reflection and the transmission coefficients are computed and therefore the acoustic
power attenuation is deduced. Moreover, the effects of geometry of ducts with and without changes in
the section are investigated. The numerical results are obtained for five configurations, including cases
of narrowing and widening of a duct portion with sudden or progressive discontinuities. Accordingly,
numerical coefficients of reflection and transmission as well as the acoustic power attenuation show the
relative influence of acoustic liners in each type of configuration.
Keywords: absorbent systems effect; discontinuities effect; scattering matrix; acoustic power attenuation.

1. Introduction 2013). Some methods, afterwards, were improved to in-

Noise reduction in waveguide systems is a topic of
considerable interest with respect to several applica-
tions, such as aircraft engines, compressors, and build-
ing ventilation systems. These systems encompass nu-
merous geometric forms as duct systems, which has an
important role in the studies of the behaviour of sound
waves. The acoustic propagation has been investigated,
first in rigid cylindrical, see (Auger, Ville, 1986),
and rectangular ducts, see (Muehleisen, 1996). Be-
sides, acoustics liners are used as a treatment of duct
walls. These liners consist of materials that are able
to reduce the transmission of sound along the ducts
and provide a good attenuation at medium and high
frequencies. Several methods were developed to extract
the acoustic impedance, the related acoustic liner prop-
erties, under grazing flow conditions such as those pre-
sented by Jones and Watson (2011; 2013), Jones
et al. (2013), Busse-Gerstengarbe et al. (2012;
corporate the effect of high temperatures, as proposed
by Kabral et al. (2014), Bodén and Kabral (2015).
These works were carried out with respect to ducts
without section change. Some waveguides can contain
many variations in cross-sections, called discontinu-
ities, which produce internal reflections of sound waves.
The discontinuity problem in ducts was firstly inves-
tigated by Miles (1946). He showed that the sud-
den discontinuity in a cylindrical duct is analogous
to lumped impedance. The transmission of sound in
the case where the walls of the duct with sudden area
expansion and extended inlet, treated by acoustically
absorbing materials of finite length, is investigated by
Demir (2016). In another work Demir (2017) defined
the scattering matrices with the help of the Wiener-
Hop technique in a non-uniformly lined duct with an
inserted expansion chamber. Measurement of acous-
tic transmission matrix and acoustic power dissipation
of duct discontinuity was described in (Sitel et al.,
 Archives of Acoustics Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 223–240 (2022), doi: 10.24425/aoa.2022.141652

Research Paper

Evaluation of the Acoustic Performance of Porous Materials Lined Ducts

with Geometric Discontinuities

Dhouha TOUNSI(1) , Wafa TAKTAK(2) , Raja DHIEF(1), (3) , Mohamed TAKTAK(1), (3)∗ ,
Mabrouk CHAABANE(3) , Mohamed HADDAR(1)
(1)
Mechanics, Modelling and Production Laboratory (LA2MP)
Mechanical Department, National School of Engineers of Sfax, University of Sfax
Sfax, Tunisia
∗
Corresponding Author e-mail: mohamed.taktak@fss.rnu.tn
(2)
National School of Engineers of Sfax, University of Sfax
Sfax, Tunisia
(3)
Faculty of Sciences of Sfax
Sfax, Tunisia
(received December 27, 2020; accepted February 7, 2022)

Duct silencers provide effective noise reduction for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. These
silencers can achieve an excellent sound attenuation through the attributes of their design. The reactive silencer
works on the principle of high reflection of sound waves at low frequencies. On the other hand, the dissipative
silencer works on the principle of sound absorption, which is very effective at high-frequencies. Combining these
two kinds of silencers allowed covering the whole frequency range. In this paper, the effect of liner characteristics
composed of a perforated plate backed by a porous material and geometry discontinuities on the acoustic power
attenuation of lined ducts is evaluated. This objective is achieved by using a numerical model to compute the
multimodal scattering matrix, thus allowing deducing the acoustic power attenuation. The numerical results
are obtained for six configurations, including cases of narrowing and widening of a radius duct with sudden or
progressive discontinuities. Numerical acoustic power attenuation shows the relative influence of the variation
in the values of each parameter of the liner, and of each type of radius discontinuities of ducts.
Keywords: geometric discontinuities in duct systems; acoustic impedance; porous materials; perforated plate;
acoustic power attenuation.
Copyright © 2022 D. Tounsi et al.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
(CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial, and no modifications or adaptations are made.

1. Introduction To characterize the acoustic behavior of duct dis-

Duct silencers provide effective noise reduction
for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
Lined duct attenuators are an example of these si-
lencers. This is the most effective and efficient method
that is widely used to reduce noise in such kinds of
ducts systems. Acoustic liners are based on the use of
acoustic absorbent materials such as porous materials,
Helmholtz resonators or perforated plates. In order
to obtain great acoustic power attenuation, these
elements can be combined together and coupled with
sudden or progressive section change of the duct to
increase the acoustic performance of the lined duct
element.
continuities with rigid wall and lined parts, numerous
methods were proposed like the work of Miles (1946),
Peat (1988a; 1988b), Munjal (1987), Kergomard
and Garcia (1987), Amir et al. (1996) and Selamet
et al. (2004). To evaluate the acoustic performance
of ducts systems, different matrices were used such
as the transfer matrix (Peat, 1988a; Munjal, 1987;
Craggs, 1989), reflection matrix (Akoum, Ville,
1998; Sitel et al., 2003), transmission matrix (Sitel
et al., 2003) or multimodal scattering matrix (Åbom,
1991; Leroux et al., 2003; Bi et al., 2006; Sitel et al.,
2006). The latter matrix showed its efficiency in model-
ing duct elements and liner impedance at higher-order
modes. In fact, such matrix presents an intrinsic pro-
 International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration

ISSN online: 1479-148X - ISSN print: 1479-1471

https://www.inderscience.com/ijvnv

Investigation of liner and duct geometry discontinuities on the

attenuation of resonator Helmholtz lined duct element

Raja Dhief, Mohamed Taktak, Mabrouk Chaabane, Mohamed Haddar

DOI: 10.1504/IJVNV.2022.10050580

Article History:
Received: 19 April 2021
Accepted: 13 September 2021
Published online: 16 September 2022

Copyright © Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Int. J. Vehicle Noise and Vibration, Vol. 18, Nos. 1/2, 2022 77

Investigation of liner and duct geometry

discontinuities on the attenuation of resonator
Helmholtz lined duct element

Raja Dhief and Mohamed Taktak*

Laboratory of Mechanics, Modeling and Production,
Mechanical Engineering Department,
National School of Engineers of Sfax,
BP 1173 – 3038, Sfax, Tunisia
and
Faculty of Sciences of Sfax,
University of Sfax,
Sfax, Tunisia
Email: dhief.raja@yahoo.fr
Email: mohamed.taktak@fss.rnu.tn
*Corresponding author

Mabrouk Chaabane
Faculty of Sciences of Sfax,
University of Sfax,
Sfax, Tunisia
Email: mabrouk.chaabane@fss.usf.tn

Mohamed Haddar
Laboratory of Mechanics, Modeling and Production,
Mechanical Engineering Department,
National School of Engineers of Sfax,
BP 1173 – 3038, Sfax, Tunisia
Email: mohamed.haddar@enis.rnu.tn

Abstract: In this study, the acoustic performance of the liner characteristics

coupled with geometric discontinuities on the acoustic attenuation of a lined
duct is investigated. The model is based on the computation of the scattering
matrix. The liner is composed of a perforated plate with an air cavity backed by
a rigid wall plate. The parametric study was conducted for six configurations,
including cases of sudden or progressive narrowing and widening of the duct
radius. The numerical results show the relative influence of the variation of
each parameter, and of each type of radius discontinuities of ducts on the
acoustic power attenuation.

Keywords: acoustic lining; cylindrical duct; discontinuity effect; acoustic

attenuation.

Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Received: 12 July 2022 Revised: 26 December 2022 Accepted: 21 January 2023

DOI: 10.1002/zamm.202200312

O R I G I N A L PA P E R

Optimization of the transmission loss of a multilayer panels

using the genetic algorithm

Dhouha Tounsi1 Raja Dhief1,2 Hadda Felhi1,2 Mohamed Taktak1,2

Mabrouk Chaabene2 Mohamed Haddar1

1 Laboratoryof Mechanics, Modeling and

Productivity (LA2MP), National School of
Engineers of Sfax, University of Sfax, Sfax,
Tunisia
2 Facultyof Science of Sfax, University of
Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia
Correspondence
Mohamed Taktak, Laboratory of
Mechanics, Modeling and Productivity
(LA2MP), National School of Engineers of
Sfax, University of Sfax, BP N ◦ 1173 - 3038,
Sfax, Tunisia.
Email: Mohamed.taktak@fss.usf.tn
An optimization method of the acoustic absorption of multilayer panels com-
posed of porous, elastic, and viscoelastic materials is presented in this paper. The
used objective functions consist on the maximizing of the sound Transmission
Loss (TL) and the minimization of the mass of the configuration. For this, the
genetic algorithm was used coupled with an analytical computation of transfer
matrix of the studied panel. This study aimed to found the optimal values of the
thicknesses of each layer with a total thickness which should not exceed 30 mm.
The others parameters are keeping constant. The developed method was applied
to a two-layer panel. The obtained results are analyzed giving sources to choose
between the studied configurations.

1 INTRODUCTION

To reduce the noise levels and to improve the acoustic comfort in various human activities, the use of passive meth-
ods of absorption remains dominating in almost of industrial applications likes the field of transport and construction.
One of used passive absorbent methods is based on the combination of properties of some specific materials in form
of multilayer system to obtain a potential solution to maximize the attenuation of acoustic waves. This kind of mul-
tilayer system was studied by many researchers using different techniques: The first one is the analytical method as
presented in ref. [1, 2]. This method is based on modeling each layer by the corresponding transfer matrix accord-
ing to its nature (fluid, elastic, porous, viscoelastic, etc. . . ). The multilayer system is then modeled by a global transfer
matrix which is the multiplication of matrices of each layer. This method is effective but it is limited in cases where
the nature of the wave and the propagation medium are complicated. To surpass these limitations, the Finite Element
Method (FEM) is developed as presented in ref. [3, 4]. In fact FEM can resolve complex problems but only in low
and medium frequencies bands. If the frequencies increase, the computation cost and time increase strongly. Meth-
ods based on Statistical Energetic Analysis (SEA) presented in ref. [5, 6] solved this problem and present alternative
methods.
To maximize the acoustic performance of multilayer systems, optimization of these systems is developed. Generally,
the optimization problem is composed by an objective function which should be maximized or to minimized taking into
account certain physical constraints. The genetic algorithm presents one of the most useful methods for solving the opti-
mization problems as proposed in ref. [7, 8] which present optimization techniques based on the genetic algorithm to
maximize the acoustic material performances evaluated by the transmission loss (TL) of absorbing multilayer. These works
target certain parameters but sometimes the optimization can lead to porous materials which do not exist or which do not
have any physical reality but can contribute to the design of new materials.
In the present paper, the panel is composed by different layer, each layer is modeled by its transfer matrix, then the
genetic algorithm is used in order to optimize the acoustic performance of the panel which resides in the TL factor and in

Z Angew Math Mech. 2023;e202200312. www.zamm-journal.org © 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH. 1 of 13

https://doi.org/10.1002/zamm.202200312
2 of 13 TOUNSI et al.

FIGURE 1 Single layer subjected to an oblique incident wave.

the value of panel mass. In the studied multilayer system three types of layer materials are used (elastic, viscoelastic and
porous) and also different configurations have been used. The goal is to determine the optimal configuration of a multilayer
system and its corresponding parameters and dimensions. The constraints of our study are related to the thickness of each
layer as well as the total thickness of the panel which must not exceed 30 mm.
The outline of the paper is as follows: The Section 2 describes the used method based on the transfer matrix modeling
for each studied layer. In the Section 3, the optimization method based on the genetic algorithm is presented as well as the
studied problem. The last section presents obtained results and a comparative study a comparative study is carried out to
choose the best configuration.

2 THE TRANSFER MATRIX METHOD

2.1 Elementary computation of the transfer matrices

The transfer matrix method is based on modeling the propagation of plane waves and on determining the transfer
matrix of each layer. The multilayer system is composed by layers excited by an oblique wave plane with an incidence
angle θ. The geometry of the problem is bidimensional in the incident plan (x1 , x3 ) as presented in Figure 1. The lateral
dimension of the layer is supposed infinite. Various types of wave propagate in the material according to their nature
as presented in ref. [9]. So, the sound propagation in the layer is represented by a transfer matrix [T] by the following
expression:

{𝑉}𝑀1 = [𝑇] .{𝑉}𝑀2 (1)

with 𝑀1 and 𝑀2 are sets close to the forward and the backward faces of the layer, respectively. The components of the
vector {𝑉}𝑀1 and {𝑉}𝑀2 are respectively the variables describing the acoustic field at points 𝑀1 and 𝑀2 of the studied
medium.
The transfer matrix depends on the frequency, the acoustical properties of each medium and on the thickness of
the layer h. In the present work, three kind of layer are studied: the elastic, the porous and the viscoelastic layers.
In the following a description of the transfer matrix computation of each studied layer material are presented in
details.

2.1.1 Elastic solid layer

In this case, longitudinal and shear waves propagate into the layer. The acoustic field in the material is described by the
amplitudes of the incident and reflected longitudinal waves and the incident and reflected shear waves (A1 , A2 , A3 and
A4 ). The associated displacement potentials can be written as follows:
{
𝜙 = exp(𝑗𝑤𝑡 − 𝑗𝑘1 𝑥1 )[𝐴1 exp(−𝑗𝑘13 𝑥3 ) + 𝐴2 exp(𝑗𝑘13 𝑥3 )]
(2)
𝜓 = exp(𝑗𝑤𝑡 − 𝑗𝑘1 𝑥1 )[𝐴3 exp(−𝑗𝑘33 𝑥3 ) + 𝐴4 exp(𝑗𝑘33 𝑥3 )]
 Attestation
Vous avez participé avec succès à la formation en
ligne :

Logiciel de calcul de
structure aux éléments
finis RFEM - Fonctions de
base
Participant(e)

M. Raja Dhief
Formateurs
M.Eng. Milan Gérard
M.Eng. Cosme Asseya

Contenu de la formation
Présentation de l'interface du logiciel RFEM
Explications sur les fonctionnalités essentielles de RFEM
Traitement détaillé d'un exemple pratique
Informations sur les produits et services en ligne de Dlubal
Questions & réponses

Logiciels d'analyse
statique et dynamique

Date de la formation
mar. 28 févr. 2023
M. Eng. Cosme Asseya

Gérant - Dlubal Software Sarl

Dlubal Software Sarl, 11 rue de Cambrai,
Paris, France 75019 Paris, France www.dlubal.fr
 Certificate
South Mediterranean University certifies that

Raja Dhief
Has successfully completed the training program for PhD graduates:

INNOVATION POST-DOC
From April 26th, 2021, to June 16th, 2021

Dr. Mahmoud Triki

President
South Mediterranean University
 Convention de PROMISE fellowship

ENTRE

L’Association d’appui au savoir de la SMU, désignée comme « Fondation SMU » dont le siège social
est sis aux 2 – Les Berges du Lac, 1053, Gouvernorat de Tunis, immatriculée au Registre National des
Entreprises sous l’identifiant Unique N° 1585928Y, ayant pour matricule fiscal le
N°1585928Y/N/P/000; représentée par sa Directrice Mme Nadia Kallel ci-après désignée

« Fondation SMU ». ET

Mme Dhief Raja, étant diplômée du programme d’Innovation Post-Doc 2021, ayant la carte CIN de
numéro 08845832 délivrée à Tunis le 18/12/2019 demeurant à cité Olympique résidence el Hadika
C22 tunis et ayant le compte bancaire dont le RIB est 07109003310583942794 ci-après désignée

« Le stagiaire» ET

L’entreprise OurDigitalFuture au capital de 1 000 Dinars, dont le siège social est sis au 17 Rue Ibn
Charaf, Belvédère, Tunis, immatriculée au Registre National des Entreprises sous l’identifiant Unique
N° 1476764N, ayant pour matricule fiscal le numéro 1476764N/A/M/000, représentée par son
Directeur Général Noomane Fehri et ci-après désignée
« L’entreprise»,
Il est préalablement exposé ce qui suit :
PRÉAMBULE

Le projet “Innovation Post-doc” est une composante des activités de l’initiative PROMISE. Ce
projet vise à renforcer l'écosystème d’innovation à travers un programme d’encadrement et
d’intégration des docteur.e.s diplômé.e.s dans le monde de l’entreprise. Le projet
« Innovation Post-doc » consiste en un cycle de formation de 6 semaines développé en
collaboration avec la Fondation SMU (South Mediterranean University). Le projet comprend
3 cohortes de 50 docteur.e.s. Pour chaque cohorte, des docteur.e.s peuvent être
sélectionné.e.s afin d’effectuer un stage d’essai au sein d’une startup. Les indemnités de ce
stage sont couvertes par le projet.
Le ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la recherche scientifique de la Tunisie a
conclu un Accord de Partenariat en date du 02/03/2021 avec, respectivement, les parties
suivantes :
− Promise (Promoting Innovation in The startup Ecosystem), un programme financé
par l’ambassade des États-Unis à Tunis, sous forme d’un don, et implémenté par le
consortium composé de Deloitte Conseil Tunisie, OST-Conseil (Open Startup
Tunisia), TAYP (Tunisian American Young Professionnel) et Endeavor Tunisia.
− Deloitte Conseil Tunisie, chef de file du projet, est le gestionnaire des fonds du
projet Promise.
− La fondation SMU est une association à but non lucratif créée en 2018 par la South
Mediterranean University (SMU). Elle vise à promouvoir et accompagner le
développement des talents à travers l’aide au financement des études, le
financement de projets de recherche et des initiatives autour de l’employabilité et
du développement des compétences.
− GoMyCode : La plus grande Communauté de développeurs en Afrique et au Moyen
Orient
− L’Association Tunisienne des docteurs et doctorants en Sciences (ATDocs)
 Cette convention est un complément du contrat signé le 02/03/2021.

Elle représente un engagement moral qui décrit le cadre du stage d’essai offert aux
docteur.e.s participant.e.s sélectionné.e.s par des entreprises sous l’égide de l’initiative
PROMISE.

Ceci étant, il a été arrêté et convenu ce qui suit :

ARTICLE 1 : OBJET DU CONVENTION

La présente convention représente la formalisation d’un engagement moral entre la fondation SMU,
en tant que responsable du transfert des indemnités du stage, Le stagiaire en tant que bénéficiaire et
l’entreprise selon les termes de cette convention.
ARTICLE 2 : Modalité d’exécution

Ce stage comme décrit dans l’alinéa 1 du préambule ci-dessus, offre une période d'essai pour le/la
participante et pour l’entreprise pouvant s’étaler sur une durée de 2 à 3 mois, ayant des indemnités
couvertes par le programme d’un forfait net totale de 1800 TND par participante sélectionnée, soit
sur 2 mois (900 TND TTC/mois) soit sur 3 mois (600 TND TTC/mois).
Deloitte, en tant que gestionnaire des fonds Promise, s'est engagé à transférer le montant des
allocations à la fondation SMU qui sera responsable du paiement des candidats dont la liste est
préalablement livrée par l’équipe PROMISE. La fondation SMU est chargée d’assurer le transfert
bancaire de ces indemnités à une fréquence mensuelle (en fin de mois) directement sur le compte de
la participante, et ce, en s’assurant que la relation contractuelle est encore en cours.
La fondation SMU doit être informée par l’équipe PROMISE de la continuité des contrats dix jours
avant la fin du mois afin d’assurer le paiement. La rupture du stage d’essai par le/la participante ou
l’entreprise conduit à la cessation immédiate de ce contrat et par conséquent des indemnités
transférées.
Il est important de souligner que cette convention ne peut en aucun cas assurer le recrutement
définitif du/de la candidate par l’entreprise, ni assurer l’acceptation de la proposition d’emploi offerte
par l’entreprise ; cette décision restant à la seule discrétion des deux parties en question.
ARTICLE 3 : LES ENGAGEMENTS DES PARTIES

Les parties ont convenu ce qui suit :

La fondation SMU s’engage à :

- Assurer le transfert des indemnités du stage chaque mois sous la forme d’un transfert
bancaire au compte du stagiaire, une fois validé par l’entreprise par un mail formel 10 jours
avant la fin du mois, de la part de l’équipe PROMISE.
- Fournir tous les documents nécessaires pour le suivi des transferts en cas de besoin.

L’entreprise :

En offrant un stage d’essai en étant exonérée de tout engagement fiscal au stagiaire pour une durée
de 2 mois

S’engage à :

- Assurer un stage correspondant à une description communiquée au candidat

 - Fournir des conditions adéquates de travail, d’orientation, d’encadrement et de formation
pour le stagiaire
- Informer le stagiaire de sa performance au cours de son stage, afin qu’il puisse s’améliorer
Le stagiaire s’engage à :

- Respecter le rôle et les termes communiquées par l’entreprise dès la signature de cette
convention
- S’engager durant toute la période du stage
- En cas de rupture de contrat, informer l’entreprise de sa décision de cession du stage, deux
semaines en avance de la date de départ
- Fournir toutes les informations bancaires personnelles aux membres de l’équipe PROMISE
- Fournir un reçu bancaire des indemnités du stage en cas de besoin

ARTICLE 4 : RÉVISION DE LA CONVENTION

La présente convention peut être révisée à la demande de l'une ou l'autre des parties signataires.
Toute révision du présent accord donne lieu à un amendement signé par chacune des parties
signataires.

ARTICLE 5 : RÈGLEMENT DES CONFLITS

Tous les conflits liés à l'exécution du présent accord sont résolus à l'amiable par le biais d'une
consultation entre les parties signataires.

En cas de cession de contrat, l’entreprise ou le participant doivent informer l’équipe de PROMISE

deux semaines en avance par un mail formel.

ARTICLE 6 : DURÉE DE L’ACCORD

Le présent accord entre en vigueur à compter de la date de sa signature pour toute la période du
stage convenu.

Le stage offert par l’entreprise au stagiaire est de 2 mois, entre le 01/12/2021 et 31/01/2022.

Fait à Tunis, le 16/12/2021

Fondation SMU L’entreprise
Mme. Nadia Kallel

Le stagiaire
Mme.Dhief Raja
Application of the Independent
Components Analysis in the Reconstruction
of Acoustic Sources in Duct Systems

Raja Dhief, Mohamed Taktak, Dhouha

Tounsi, Ali Akrout & Mohamed Haddar

Arabian Journal for Science and

Engineering

ISSN 2193-567X

Arab J Sci Eng

DOI 10.1007/s13369-016-2196-1

1 23
 ARCHIVES OF ACOUSTICS
Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 49–66 (2020)
DOI: 10.24425/aoa.2020.132481

Research Paper

Investigation on the Effects of Acoustic Liner Variation and Geometry

Discontinuities on the Acoustic Performance of Lined Ducts

Raja DHIEF(1), (2) , Amine MAKNI(2) , Mohamed TAKTAK(1), (2)∗

Mabrouk CHAABANE(1) , Mohamed HADDAR(2)
(1)
Faculty of Sciences of Sfax
BP 1171, 3000 Sfax, Tunisia
∗
Corresponding Author e-mail: mohamed.taktak@fss.rnu.tn
(2)
Laboratory of Mechanics, Modeling and Production (LA2MP)
National School of Engineers of Sfax, University of Sfax
Sfax, Tunisia

(received April 23, 2019; accepted November 4, 2019 )

Noise reduction inside waveguide systems has gained momentum owing to a great interest in it. To
attenuate the sound in a broad frequency range, this study aims to compare the effects of two acoustic
liners, a perforated plate backed by an air cavity (PP-Air cavity), or by a porous material (PP-PM), on the
acoustic behaviour of lined ducts using a numerical model to compute the multimodal scattering matrix.
From this matrix, the reflection and the transmission coefficients are computed and therefore the acoustic
power attenuation is deduced. Moreover, the effects of geometry of ducts with and without changes in
the section are investigated. The numerical results are obtained for five configurations, including cases
of narrowing and widening of a duct portion with sudden or progressive discontinuities. Accordingly,
numerical coefficients of reflection and transmission as well as the acoustic power attenuation show the
relative influence of acoustic liners in each type of configuration.
Keywords: absorbent systems effect; discontinuities effect; scattering matrix; acoustic power attenuation.

1. Introduction 2013). Some methods, afterwards, were improved to in-

Noise reduction in waveguide systems is a topic of
considerable interest with respect to several applica-
tions, such as aircraft engines, compressors, and build-
ing ventilation systems. These systems encompass nu-
merous geometric forms as duct systems, which has an
important role in the studies of the behaviour of sound
waves. The acoustic propagation has been investigated,
first in rigid cylindrical, see (Auger, Ville, 1986),
and rectangular ducts, see (Muehleisen, 1996). Be-
sides, acoustics liners are used as a treatment of duct
walls. These liners consist of materials that are able
to reduce the transmission of sound along the ducts
and provide a good attenuation at medium and high
frequencies. Several methods were developed to extract
the acoustic impedance, the related acoustic liner prop-
erties, under grazing flow conditions such as those pre-
sented by Jones and Watson (2011; 2013), Jones
et al. (2013), Busse-Gerstengarbe et al. (2012;
corporate the effect of high temperatures, as proposed
by Kabral et al. (2014), Bodén and Kabral (2015).
These works were carried out with respect to ducts
without section change. Some waveguides can contain
many variations in cross-sections, called discontinu-
ities, which produce internal reflections of sound waves.
The discontinuity problem in ducts was firstly inves-
tigated by Miles (1946). He showed that the sud-
den discontinuity in a cylindrical duct is analogous
to lumped impedance. The transmission of sound in
the case where the walls of the duct with sudden area
expansion and extended inlet, treated by acoustically
absorbing materials of finite length, is investigated by
Demir (2016). In another work Demir (2017) defined
the scattering matrices with the help of the Wiener-
Hop technique in a non-uniformly lined duct with an
inserted expansion chamber. Measurement of acous-
tic transmission matrix and acoustic power dissipation
of duct discontinuity was described in (Sitel et al.,
 Archives of Acoustics Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 223–240 (2022), doi: 10.24425/aoa.2022.141652

Research Paper

Evaluation of the Acoustic Performance of Porous Materials Lined Ducts

with Geometric Discontinuities

Dhouha TOUNSI(1) , Wafa TAKTAK(2) , Raja DHIEF(1), (3) , Mohamed TAKTAK(1), (3)∗ ,
Mabrouk CHAABANE(3) , Mohamed HADDAR(1)
(1)
Mechanics, Modelling and Production Laboratory (LA2MP)
Mechanical Department, National School of Engineers of Sfax, University of Sfax
Sfax, Tunisia
∗
Corresponding Author e-mail: mohamed.taktak@fss.rnu.tn
(2)
National School of Engineers of Sfax, University of Sfax
Sfax, Tunisia
(3)
Faculty of Sciences of Sfax
Sfax, Tunisia
(received December 27, 2020; accepted February 7, 2022)

Duct silencers provide effective noise reduction for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. These
silencers can achieve an excellent sound attenuation through the attributes of their design. The reactive silencer
works on the principle of high reflection of sound waves at low frequencies. On the other hand, the dissipative
silencer works on the principle of sound absorption, which is very effective at high-frequencies. Combining these
two kinds of silencers allowed covering the whole frequency range. In this paper, the effect of liner characteristics
composed of a perforated plate backed by a porous material and geometry discontinuities on the acoustic power
attenuation of lined ducts is evaluated. This objective is achieved by using a numerical model to compute the
multimodal scattering matrix, thus allowing deducing the acoustic power attenuation. The numerical results
are obtained for six configurations, including cases of narrowing and widening of a radius duct with sudden or
progressive discontinuities. Numerical acoustic power attenuation shows the relative influence of the variation
in the values of each parameter of the liner, and of each type of radius discontinuities of ducts.
Keywords: geometric discontinuities in duct systems; acoustic impedance; porous materials; perforated plate;
acoustic power attenuation.
Copyright © 2022 D. Tounsi et al.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
(CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial, and no modifications or adaptations are made.

1. Introduction To characterize the acoustic behavior of duct dis-

Duct silencers provide effective noise reduction
for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
Lined duct attenuators are an example of these si-
lencers. This is the most effective and efficient method
that is widely used to reduce noise in such kinds of
ducts systems. Acoustic liners are based on the use of
acoustic absorbent materials such as porous materials,
Helmholtz resonators or perforated plates. In order
to obtain great acoustic power attenuation, these
elements can be combined together and coupled with
sudden or progressive section change of the duct to
increase the acoustic performance of the lined duct
element.
continuities with rigid wall and lined parts, numerous
methods were proposed like the work of Miles (1946),
Peat (1988a; 1988b), Munjal (1987), Kergomard
and Garcia (1987), Amir et al. (1996) and Selamet
et al. (2004). To evaluate the acoustic performance
of ducts systems, different matrices were used such
as the transfer matrix (Peat, 1988a; Munjal, 1987;
Craggs, 1989), reflection matrix (Akoum, Ville,
1998; Sitel et al., 2003), transmission matrix (Sitel
et al., 2003) or multimodal scattering matrix (Åbom,
1991; Leroux et al., 2003; Bi et al., 2006; Sitel et al.,
2006). The latter matrix showed its efficiency in model-
ing duct elements and liner impedance at higher-order
modes. In fact, such matrix presents an intrinsic pro-
 International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration

ISSN online: 1479-148X - ISSN print: 1479-1471

https://www.inderscience.com/ijvnv

Investigation of liner and duct geometry discontinuities on the

attenuation of resonator Helmholtz lined duct element

Raja Dhief, Mohamed Taktak, Mabrouk Chaabane, Mohamed Haddar

DOI: 10.1504/IJVNV.2022.10050580

Article History:
Received: 19 April 2021
Accepted: 13 September 2021
Published online: 16 September 2022

Copyright © Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Int. J. Vehicle Noise and Vibration, Vol. 18, Nos. 1/2, 2022 77

Investigation of liner and duct geometry

discontinuities on the attenuation of resonator
Helmholtz lined duct element

Raja Dhief and Mohamed Taktak*

Laboratory of Mechanics, Modeling and Production,
Mechanical Engineering Department,
National School of Engineers of Sfax,
BP 1173 – 3038, Sfax, Tunisia
and
Faculty of Sciences of Sfax,
University of Sfax,
Sfax, Tunisia
Email: dhief.raja@yahoo.fr
Email: mohamed.taktak@fss.rnu.tn
*Corresponding author

Mabrouk Chaabane
Faculty of Sciences of Sfax,
University of Sfax,
Sfax, Tunisia
Email: mabrouk.chaabane@fss.usf.tn

Mohamed Haddar
Laboratory of Mechanics, Modeling and Production,
Mechanical Engineering Department,
National School of Engineers of Sfax,
BP 1173 – 3038, Sfax, Tunisia
Email: mohamed.haddar@enis.rnu.tn

Abstract: In this study, the acoustic performance of the liner characteristics

coupled with geometric discontinuities on the acoustic attenuation of a lined
duct is investigated. The model is based on the computation of the scattering
matrix. The liner is composed of a perforated plate with an air cavity backed by
a rigid wall plate. The parametric study was conducted for six configurations,
including cases of sudden or progressive narrowing and widening of the duct
radius. The numerical results show the relative influence of the variation of
each parameter, and of each type of radius discontinuities of ducts on the
acoustic power attenuation.

Keywords: acoustic lining; cylindrical duct; discontinuity effect; acoustic

attenuation.

Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Received: 12 July 2022 Revised: 26 December 2022 Accepted: 21 January 2023

DOI: 10.1002/zamm.202200312

O R I G I N A L PA P E R

Optimization of the transmission loss of a multilayer panels

using the genetic algorithm

Dhouha Tounsi1 Raja Dhief1,2 Hadda Felhi1,2 Mohamed Taktak1,2

Mabrouk Chaabene2 Mohamed Haddar1

1 Laboratoryof Mechanics, Modeling and

Productivity (LA2MP), National School of
Engineers of Sfax, University of Sfax, Sfax,
Tunisia
2 Facultyof Science of Sfax, University of
Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia
Correspondence
Mohamed Taktak, Laboratory of
Mechanics, Modeling and Productivity
(LA2MP), National School of Engineers of
Sfax, University of Sfax, BP N ◦ 1173 - 3038,
Sfax, Tunisia.
Email: Mohamed.taktak@fss.usf.tn
An optimization method of the acoustic absorption of multilayer panels com-
posed of porous, elastic, and viscoelastic materials is presented in this paper. The
used objective functions consist on the maximizing of the sound Transmission
Loss (TL) and the minimization of the mass of the configuration. For this, the
genetic algorithm was used coupled with an analytical computation of transfer
matrix of the studied panel. This study aimed to found the optimal values of the
thicknesses of each layer with a total thickness which should not exceed 30 mm.
The others parameters are keeping constant. The developed method was applied
to a two-layer panel. The obtained results are analyzed giving sources to choose
between the studied configurations.

1 INTRODUCTION

To reduce the noise levels and to improve the acoustic comfort in various human activities, the use of passive meth-
ods of absorption remains dominating in almost of industrial applications likes the field of transport and construction.
One of used passive absorbent methods is based on the combination of properties of some specific materials in form
of multilayer system to obtain a potential solution to maximize the attenuation of acoustic waves. This kind of mul-
tilayer system was studied by many researchers using different techniques: The first one is the analytical method as
presented in ref. [1, 2]. This method is based on modeling each layer by the corresponding transfer matrix accord-
ing to its nature (fluid, elastic, porous, viscoelastic, etc. . . ). The multilayer system is then modeled by a global transfer
matrix which is the multiplication of matrices of each layer. This method is effective but it is limited in cases where
the nature of the wave and the propagation medium are complicated. To surpass these limitations, the Finite Element
Method (FEM) is developed as presented in ref. [3, 4]. In fact FEM can resolve complex problems but only in low
and medium frequencies bands. If the frequencies increase, the computation cost and time increase strongly. Meth-
ods based on Statistical Energetic Analysis (SEA) presented in ref. [5, 6] solved this problem and present alternative
methods.
To maximize the acoustic performance of multilayer systems, optimization of these systems is developed. Generally,
the optimization problem is composed by an objective function which should be maximized or to minimized taking into
account certain physical constraints. The genetic algorithm presents one of the most useful methods for solving the opti-
mization problems as proposed in ref. [7, 8] which present optimization techniques based on the genetic algorithm to
maximize the acoustic material performances evaluated by the transmission loss (TL) of absorbing multilayer. These works
target certain parameters but sometimes the optimization can lead to porous materials which do not exist or which do not
have any physical reality but can contribute to the design of new materials.
In the present paper, the panel is composed by different layer, each layer is modeled by its transfer matrix, then the
genetic algorithm is used in order to optimize the acoustic performance of the panel which resides in the TL factor and in

Z Angew Math Mech. 2023;e202200312. www.zamm-journal.org © 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH. 1 of 13

https://doi.org/10.1002/zamm.202200312
2 of 13 TOUNSI et al.

FIGURE 1 Single layer subjected to an oblique incident wave.

the value of panel mass. In the studied multilayer system three types of layer materials are used (elastic, viscoelastic and
porous) and also different configurations have been used. The goal is to determine the optimal configuration of a multilayer
system and its corresponding parameters and dimensions. The constraints of our study are related to the thickness of each
layer as well as the total thickness of the panel which must not exceed 30 mm.
The outline of the paper is as follows: The Section 2 describes the used method based on the transfer matrix modeling
for each studied layer. In the Section 3, the optimization method based on the genetic algorithm is presented as well as the
studied problem. The last section presents obtained results and a comparative study a comparative study is carried out to
choose the best configuration.

2 THE TRANSFER MATRIX METHOD

2.1 Elementary computation of the transfer matrices

The transfer matrix method is based on modeling the propagation of plane waves and on determining the transfer
matrix of each layer. The multilayer system is composed by layers excited by an oblique wave plane with an incidence
angle θ. The geometry of the problem is bidimensional in the incident plan (x1 , x3 ) as presented in Figure 1. The lateral
dimension of the layer is supposed infinite. Various types of wave propagate in the material according to their nature
as presented in ref. [9]. So, the sound propagation in the layer is represented by a transfer matrix [T] by the following
expression:

{𝑉}𝑀1 = [𝑇] .{𝑉}𝑀2 (1)

with 𝑀1 and 𝑀2 are sets close to the forward and the backward faces of the layer, respectively. The components of the
vector {𝑉}𝑀1 and {𝑉}𝑀2 are respectively the variables describing the acoustic field at points 𝑀1 and 𝑀2 of the studied
medium.
The transfer matrix depends on the frequency, the acoustical properties of each medium and on the thickness of
the layer h. In the present work, three kind of layer are studied: the elastic, the porous and the viscoelastic layers.
In the following a description of the transfer matrix computation of each studied layer material are presented in
details.

2.1.1 Elastic solid layer

In this case, longitudinal and shear waves propagate into the layer. The acoustic field in the material is described by the
amplitudes of the incident and reflected longitudinal waves and the incident and reflected shear waves (A1 , A2 , A3 and
A4 ). The associated displacement potentials can be written as follows:
{
𝜙 = exp(𝑗𝑤𝑡 − 𝑗𝑘1 𝑥1 )[𝐴1 exp(−𝑗𝑘13 𝑥3 ) + 𝐴2 exp(𝑗𝑘13 𝑥3 )]
(2)
𝜓 = exp(𝑗𝑤𝑡 − 𝑗𝑘1 𝑥1 )[𝐴3 exp(−𝑗𝑘33 𝑥3 ) + 𝐴4 exp(𝑗𝑘33 𝑥3 )]
 The Third International Conference
on Acoustics and Vibration
March 15-16, 2021, Online - Sfax -Tunisia

The ICAV’2020 Organizing Committee certifies that

Raja Dhief
has successfully presented a paper entitled

Effect of Mean Flow and Impedance variation on the Acoustic Performance of Cylindrical Ducts Discontinuities

Authors: Raja Dhief, Mohamed Taktak , Mabrouk Chaabane, Mohamed Haddar

ICAV’2020 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Pr. Mohamed Amine BEN SOUF Pr. Nabih FEKI