Design and performance evaluation of a soundproof enclosure to reduce noise pollution from portable generators

Abstract

Noise is considered one of the important topics that attracted the attention of engineers and researchers in the practical field in order to control it and

reduce its negative effects on life.

The research aims to reduce the noise emanating from small electric generators by isolating them with locally available low-cost materials. These materials were chosen on the basis of the absorbance and sound reduction coefficient of acoustic materials.

The analysis of the sound wave revealed that the frequency of the incident wave was less than the critical frequency of the container, and this indicates that the container will not resonate during operation.

For this purpose, an experimental design and performance evaluation of a soundproof enclosure with multi-layer walls was conducted, consisting of the outer layer being a structure of St-45 steel sheets and the inner layer of wood and foam as an absorbent material sandwiched between them.

 The sound level emitted by the generator was measured before and after isolation, and these numerical results were compared by drawing acoustic maps for both cases on the Matlab program, and the results showed that the soundproof container effectively contributed to reducing the noise emitted by the generator, and it was found that the temperature of the generator It was not affected much by using the soundproof container, which indicates the effectiveness of the air cooling system used.