Numerical and experimental modelling of structure-borne aircraft interior noise

In the present paper, the problem of structure-borne interior noise generated in an aircraft cabin has been considered using a simplified reduced-scale model of a passenger aircraft. Experimental investigations included measurements of frequency response functions at several positions of a microphone inside the aircraft, when an electromagnetic shaker exciting structural vibrations was located at different places. Numerical investigations have been carried out as well, and they included finite element calculations of structural and acoustic modes as well as frequency response functions for interior acoustic pressure. Some of the obtained numerical results have been compared with the experimental ones. The observed reasonably good agreement between them indicates that structure-borne interior noise in the described reduced-scale aircraft model can be predicted and understood rather well. This demonstrates that the proposed approach employing simplified reduced-scale structural models can be used successfully for prediction and mitigation of aircraft interior noise.