Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology 5(24): 5556-5560, 2013

ISSN: 2040-7459; e-ISSN: 2040-7467

© Maxwell Scientific Organization, 2013
Submitted: September 25, 2012 Accepted: November 13, 2012 Published: May 30, 2013

Study of Transmission Loss on Muffler

1, 2
Wang Bing, 1Wang Yongjuan and 1XU Cheng
1
School of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology,
Nanjing, 210094, China
2
School of Mechanical Engineering, Huahai Institute of Technology, Lianyungang, 222005, China

Abstract: Transmission loss is the main method which measure silencer sound deadening capacity. The most
effective noise elimination technique of compensator is muffler. Muffler is equipment which organizes sound
transmission and permits airflow pass and must satisfy definite muffling amount and frequency property. The study
builds model and theoretically studies and analyzes the internal sound problem and contrasts between FEM and
transmission matrix method and computes transmission loss. On the basis of experimental verification, combining
model analysis with sound pressure distribution graph, analyze muffling property deeply.

Keywords: FEM, muffler, transmission loss, transmission matrix method

INTRODUCTION parameter approximation algorithm to analyze muffler

components, the method using only the wavelength is
Noise especially strong impulse noise, serious much larger than the geometric dimensions of the
harm to the human body, the most harm auditory is muffler, for low-frequency approximate calculation
organ damage and hearing loss, as well as adverse (Papadakis and Fowler, 1973). In 2005, Omid published
effects on the nervous, digestive and circulatory a classic paper plane wave theory, using plane wave
systems. theory to analyze the acoustic characteristics of the case
The installation of the muffler muzzle is effective of no airflow muffler (Omid et al., 2005).
muffler technology of muzzle noise. Muffler is to In 2003 Bilawchuk published an article using
prevent the sound propagation and allows airflow equivalent circuit of the transfer matrix method for the
through an apparatus, which is the main technical calculation of the acoustic characteristics of the muffler,
measure to reduce wind noise. Muzzle silencer must in the same period (Bilawchuk and Fyfe, 2003), Ahmet
meet the requirements of acoustics, mechanics and studied acoustic transfer matrix in the presence of mean
usability. In the acoustic aspect, meet some of the flow. In the seventies (Ahmet and Alinur, 2005), Wu
muffler quantity and frequency characteristics. proposed theory of acoustic wave propagation in the
Complex muffler major research is FEM, BEM, the presence of the airstream (Wu and Zhang, 1998), but
acoustic transfer matrix method. FEM is the most still did not consider the influence of the temperature
commonly used numerical method. Peat firstly gradient. In the eighties, with further study of the
introduced FEM into acoustic at the 1991 meeting of airflow and temperature, more comprehensive
the Fifth International (Peat, 1991). Kirby applied FEM discussion of the use of the method to calculate the
to transmission loss calculation (Kirby, 2001). Denia design muffler are proposed. Domestic scholars also do
further applied FEM to the case of the uniform fluid a lot of research on transfer matrix and applied muffler
flow field, in addition to these, researchers also study acoustic performance into computing. This study will
on the muffler from a different perspective (Denia and examine the acoustic characteristics of the muffler
Selamet, 2007). Its unique advantages of the finite under the factors combined effects of flow rate,
element method for solving muffler silencer temperature and thermal viscous effects, to calculate the
performance and other issues, it is to overcome the transmission loss.
traditional methods for the structure of the muffler of
restrictions and directly solve within the muffler THE SILENCER ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE
fluctuation equation, fully consider its structure, EVALUATION PARAMETERS
medium, temperature influence in the reasonable
selection of the boundary conditions in the case of high The acoustic performance’ good or bad mainly
precision. In 1973, American scholar Papadakis took measure from its size and noise elimination frequency.
the lead with acoustic filter theory to guide the design Its evaluation parameters mainly include insertion loss,
of resistance muffler and make use of lumped transmission loss and noise reduction amount.

Corresponding Author: Wang Bing, School of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology,
Nanjing, 210094, China
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Insertion loss: Insertion loss is the difference value of  P1   A B  P2  P 

  =    = [T ] 2 
acoustic power level before and after installed from the
 U1   C D U 2  U 2 
tube mouth outwardly radiated sound power level of the
difference, if the measurement point of the two
measurements are the same, i.e., the insertion loss can where,
also be expressed for the installation of the muffler of P 1 , P 2 = Sound pressure of input and output of muzzle
the measurement points before and after the acoustic U 1 , U 2 = Sound volume velocity of input and output of
pressure the level of the difference. muzzle

Transmission loss: Transmission loss means sound For the complex structure of the muffler, it can be
power level value difference at the entrance and the decomposed into simple combination of elements, the
outlet, which is TL = L T1 - L T2 , in which, L T1 , L T2 total transfer matrix is the accumulation of each unit
respectively, is sound power level of the entrance of the transmission matrix.
incident and sound power level of the muffler outlet at
(no reflective end). Considering thermal viscous effect rigid straight
Under normal circumstances, the muffler inlet duct tube:
cross-sectional area and environment is the same. So
above equation simplifies to: e − jK d kl  T11 j 2 sin K c kl 
[T1 ] =  
h + + h −  j 2h + h − T22 
T11 + T12 / Y + T21Y + T22
TL = 20 log
2 while,

Y-impedance, Y = c/S, c-sound velocity, S-cross- T11 = ( h − + h + ) cos K c kl + j ( h − + h + ) sin K c kl

section area of the pipe.
T22 = ( h + + h − ) cos K c kl + j ( h + − h − ) sin K c kl
Muffler transmission loss is the nature of the
muffler itself, only is the relevant with the structure of K ± = K 0 /(1 ± K 0 M )
the muffler and has nothing to do with the velocity of h ± = K 0 (1 + ((1 − j ) / s ) 2(1 ± K 0 M ) )
sound in the outside of the muffler, so transmission loss
M = v0 / c
of the evaluation parameters is used for theoretical
studies, it’s difficult to measure in practice.
Since insertion loss is only need to be measured M = Mach number
before and after the muffler is installed in the number of v 0 = Straight tube gas velocity
a fixed measuring point SPL and easy on-site
measurement, therefore it is the most commonly used K 02 M K0
Kd = Kc =
performance evaluation target of the muffler, but it is 1− K0 M2 2
1 − K 02 M 2

not only concerned with the performance of noise 1− j γ −1+ σ

reduction, but also related to impedance of the outlet K0 = 1+
2 σs
end and is not easy to theoretical predictions. On the
contrary, the transmission loss of the theoretical
while,
prediction is relatively easy, because the characteristics
γ = Heat transfer ratio:
of the transmission loss is only the reaction of the
transmission characteristic of the muffler itself, without
the influence of sound source piping system and outlet σ 2 = µC p / K
tail pipe, that is the sound source the outlet end of the
impedance contents, means that the transmission loss is σ = Prandtl coefficient
the approximation of the muffler actual performance; C p = Isobaric specific heat capacity
but if the sound source and the end of the muffler to be µ = Shear viscosity coefficient
seen as no echo, transmission loss and insertion loss K = Thermal conductivity coefficient, while
should be equal. approximated muzzle muffler Prandtl number
0.5
TRANSMISSION MATRIX k = wave number
k = 2𝜋𝜋f/c, c-sound velocity, f-frequency
For an acoustic unit, if the acoustics amount of the
unit front portion is input, the acoustics amount of the
Expansion chamber: The acoustic focus of the study
system behind portion is output, it can be established
of the expansion chamber lies in the sectional portion
transfer function based on the transfer matrix:
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mutations, the same as the processing method of the h ± = K 0 (1 + ((1 − j ) / s ) 2(1 ± K 0 M ) )

expansion chamber with inner tube, simple expansion
1− j
chamber can be seen as the case of the expansion e± = 2(1 ± K 0 M )
σs
chambers of the inner tube in the band when the length
of the inner tube is zero, so the expansion chamber with g ± = 1 − ((1 − j ) / s )((γ − 1) / σ 2(1 ± K 0 M )
inner tube is the object of study.
ζ = Local pressure loss coefficient caused by sectional
Section sudden contraction structure: The cross- mutations.
sectional area of the upstream pipe of the cross-
sectional structure of sudden contraction is S 1 , the ORIGINAL MODEL
downstream duct cross-sectional area of the tube is S 2 ,
the length of tube is l, the airflow of tube resonator is Muffler is a six-cavity and one tube structure, as
regarded as no speed. into the left entrance, right end, the structure shown in
Sudden contraction of the pipe cross-sectional area Fig. 1 (Wang et al., 2010).
of the pipe make airflow destroyed, generates complex The muffler is a resistance muffler, the pipe is the
flow including whirlpool sound field, in this case also use of different shapes and sizes, resulting in
becomes very complicated and will provoke many impedance mismatch of the acoustic propagation, make
higher order wave here because the theoretical it reflection at its junction cross-section mutation in the
restrictions can only be approximate to study the acoustic characteristics, part of the acoustic wave to the
changes in the sound field: reflected by the sound source direction, leaving part
continues to propagate forward, to achieve the purpose
−1
1 1  1 1  of noise reduction:
[T ]3 =  + [ A] −1 [ B ] +
h1 − h1−  h2 − h2− 
T = [T1 ]1[T2 ]2 [T3 ]3 [T4 ]1[T5 ]2 [T6 ]3
A A12  B B12  (1)
[ A] =  11 [ B ] =  11 [T7 ][T8 ]2 [T9 ]3 [T10 ]1[T11 ]2 [T12 ]3
 A21 A22   B21 B22 

• Rigid straight tube substructure

A11 = S1 (1 / z + (2M / z − 1)h1+ + M ( M / z − 1) g1+ )
• Intubation Section sudden contraction substructure
A12 = S1 (1 / z − (2M / z − 1)h1− + M ( M / z − 1) g1− )
A21 = 1 + e1+ + Mh1+
A22 = 1 + e1+ − Mh1−

B11 = S 2 [1 / z + ( 2 M / z − 1 + (γ − 1)ξM 2 ( M / z + 1))h2+

+ M ( M / z − 1) g 2+ ]
B12 = S 2 [1 / z − ( 2 M / z + 1 + (γ − 1)ξM 2 ( M / z − 1))h2+
+ M ( M / z − 1) g 2− ]
B21 = 1 + e2+ + M (1 + ξ ) h2+
B22 = 1 + e2+ − M (1 + ξ )h2−
Fig. 1: Resistance mufflers structure diagram
z = p 3 / ρ 0 cu 3

Fig. 2: The transmission loss of the transfer matrix method for calculation of subsonic and supersonic
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• The expansion cavity sudden expansion

substructure
• Using substructural acoustic transfer matrix, the
transmission loss is shown in Fig. 2:

T11 + T12 / Y + T21Y + T22

TL = 20 log
2
Fig. 3: FEM model of muffler
Y-tail pipe acoustic radiation impedance, Y = c/S,
while c-sound velocity, S-cross-sectional area of the length selected to ensure the calculation accuracy, the
pipe. Using Eq. (1) derivation of each sub-structure of relationship of minimum side length L e and the highest
the acoustic transfer matrix, work out the transmission calculated frequency f max is L e = 0.09 c/f max .
loss program. The application can be compiled from the Human ear audible frequency range is 20Hz-
muffler transmission loss in the range of 20-4000Hz. 20000Hz, 1000-4000Hz frequency range of the human
As can be seen from Fig. 2, the average noise ear is sensitive. the higher the calculated frequency, the
reduction is about 15dB in the range of 20-4000Hz, smaller the unit edge length, the greater the number of
unstable, has passing frequency, but supersonic passing the unit, for the calculation of the performance of the
frequency is small, the average noise reduction is about silencer of the muffler itself, namely, transmission
10dB. The greater the airflow velocity, the more noise losses, it’s necessary to get incidence sound pressure at
reduction peak decreased. the entrance, the sound pressure of the nonreflected
wave at the outlet. Therefore, the entrance to increase
FEM MODEL the unit velocity incentive and sound absorption
coefficient 1 of export is applied for all absorbing
Modeling principles: Establish muffler sound field boundary. The model shown is Fig. 3 and transmission
finite element model due to the complexity of the loss is in Fig. 4.
muffler sound field structure must be a reasonable Figure 4 is the graph of the subsonic transmission
assumption and the sound field boundary plus the loss of the two calculation methods and experimental,
appropriate boundary conditions, the sound pressure of the map can be seen in the entire frequency range,
the muffler inlet and export is calculated and thus results using FEM calculation are in good agreement
obtain the muffler transmission loss. This study use with the experimental results show that FEM can
Solid works to create a geometric model of the muffler, accurately predict the performance of the resistance
use Gambit to build FEM model and Hypermesh mesh, muffler.
SYSNOISE sound field analysis and calculation of the Slightly lower than the experimental results in the
transmission loss of the muffler. Thinking the muffler high frequency domain calculation results, which can
internal as non-coupled sound field, that ignored the be summarized as finite element calculations ignore the
role of fluid and structure coupling, so only the muffler viscous damping effect of the medium. And using the
internal cavity modeling. transfer matrix method, it can be seen that the
Model mesh density must be sufficiently detailed transmission loss curve near the low-frequency the
to be able to distinguish the highest frequency, unit side calculated results of both the difference is small, but to

Fig. 4: Transmission loss diagram of subsonic

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