Performance analysis and material distribution optimization for sound barriers using a semianalytical meshless method

Abstract

With the increase in car ownership, traffic noise pollution has increased considerably and is one of the most severe types of noise pollution that affects living standards. Noise reduction by sound barriers is a common protective measure used in this country and abroad. The acoustic performance of a sound barrier is highly dependent on its shape and material. In this paper, a semianalytical meshless Burton–Miller-type singular boundary method is proposed to analyze the acoustic performance of various shapes of sound barriers, and the distribution of sound-absorbing materials on the surface of sound barriers is optimized by combining a solid isotropic material with a penalization method. The acoustic effect of the sound-absorbing material is simplified as the acoustical impedance boundary condition. The objective of optimization is to minimize the sound pressure in a given reference plane. The volume of the sound-absorbing material is used as a constraint. The density of the nodes covered with the sound-absorbing material is used as the design variable. The method of moving asymptotes was used to update the design variables. This model completely avoids the mesh discretization process in the finite element method and requires only boundary nodes. In addition, the approach also does not require the singular integral calculation in the boundary element method. The method is illustrated and validated using numerical examples to demonstrate its accuracy and efficiency.