A novel beamformer array design for noise source location from intermediate measurement distances

Abstract

Very regular beamformer array geometries will have grating lobes in their directivity pattern when applied above a certain frequency. The grating lobes can be suppressed by removing periodicities, typically by the use of random arrays or spiral arrays. Large irregular arrays are, however, difficult to build due to their complicated support structure and cabling. The present paper describes a novel array design, which maintains the low grating lobe level of irregular arrays, but which has a regularity that allows a much simpler support structure and cabling. The performance is compared with that of comparable regular and irregular arrays, and verified through practical measurements. Examples of application to the localization of source of wind noise and high-frequency engine noise will be presented.

Noise Source Identification Applied in Electric Power Industry Using Microphone Arrays

“…The microphone array configuration design is the most crucial parameter to affect localization performance characterized by the array beampattern. It is reasonable to optimize array configuration to form the desirable beampattern with narrow mainlobe width (MLW) and low sidelobe level (SLL) [4] which is in agreement with high spatial resolution and strong capability of interference rejection, respectively.…”

Spiral array design with particle swarm optimization

“…In the real application, there are a lot of different array designs, including the rectangular array, the single ring array, the double ring array, the wheel array etc. [9,10]. In these designs, the performance of the wheel array is greater than others.…”

Improving the resolution of three-dimensional acoustic imaging with planar phased arrays

“…At this point it should be emphasised that the imaging functions I and J are alternative expressions for the beamformer output B derived to optimise the phased array response for near field beamforming. Finally, it should be mentioned that random, non-redundant array geometries are favourable since they tend to reduce aliasing effects due to periodicities in the array pattern [1,10].…”