An active control system has been developed and used experimentally on
an operational turbofan engine to reduce inlet tonal noise at the Pan
blade passage frequency. Both single channel and multichannel systems
were tested. The control approach used is the feedforward derivative
measurement time-averaged adaptive algorithm. This algorithm is capabl
e of adapting to a nonstationary system, requiring no prior knowledge
of the system, A reference sensor mounted in the casing: of the fan pr
ovides the fan blade passing frequency reference signal to the control
ler. Microphones with a large sensing area are placed in the acoustic
far field of the engine. The control algorithms minimize a cost functi
on, the sum of the error signal mean-square-values, by activating loud
speakers that are mounted around the inlet of the engine. The control
signals are obtained by filtering the reference signal with finite imp
ulse response digital filters, The control algorithm finds the optimum
Biter weights by using statistical estimates of the cost function to
be minimized. A single channel control system was tested on an axisymm
etric dominant mode case and produced reductions of up to 17 dB at the
error microphone. The controller maintained reductions in the fan ton
e even as the engine speed was increased. In a traverse of the radiate
d sound held of the engine the fan blade passage tone was reduced over
a sector of 30 deg around the error sensor with a considerable spillo
ver increase in the fan tone outside of this sector, Two six channel c
ontrol systems were developed and tested on both axisymmetric and spin
ning mode dominant cases, Reductions of up to 19.7 dB were achieved ov
er large sectors around the error microphones with significantly reduc
ed spillover.