Acoustical performance of Helmholtz resonators used as vehicular silencers

Abstract

This study proposes to evaluate the acoustical performance of a reactive vehicular silencer made entirely of Helmholtz resonator. Four or seven resonators are idealized to be in a series configuration, all the dimensions except cavity length and resonators are fixed. An algorithm processes inputted characteristic engine noise signal obtained from literature, identify peaks, and calculates ideal cavity length for attenuation. The transmission loss of the system is analytically calculated. Attenuation levels obtained are satisfactory. The required volume of the resonator to achieve the same resonance frequency as low frequency noise peak demands impractical cavity length, proving it to be flawed. It is suggested to use resonators of two or three different diameter for different frequency range in order to overcome this problem.

Keywords

• helmholtz resonator
• vehicular exhaust system
• noise attenuation
• muffler
• reactive silencer