Active noise and vibration control systems for passenger transport vehicles: an overview of concepts and applications

The new generation of passenger vehicles, especially cars and aircraft, require innovative solutions for reducing interior noise that can meet new design criteria. In particular, given the increasing cost of fuel caused by declining oil supplies and the ever-increasing demand to reduce pollutant gas emissions into the air, there is a great interest in lightweight, fuel-efficient vehicles. Active noise and vibration control techniques offer interesting solutions that can be effectively combined with lightweight passive treatments to control noise at low and medium audio frequencies. The introductory part of this article gives an overview of the principles of active control using feedforward and feedback systems for variously controlling tonal and stochastic noise. The core of the paper then provides a review of key concepts and applications of active control systems to the reduction of noise and vibration in passenger transport applications. Finally, an extensive summary of active noise and vibration control in passenger transport is presented with an outlook on future directions of research and development.