Research project: Active Control of Sound and Vibration on a Luxury Yacht

The acoustic environment in high quality luxury yachts has become an important consideration for yacht manufacturers and may be seen as a potentially distinguishing feature between two different high quality products. High levels of noise and vibration can result in an uncomfortable environment and, therefore, yacht manufacturers aim to achieve low levels of noise and vibration throughout the living quarters on their yachts.

At mid to high frequencies passive noise and vibration control treatments can be employed to achieve a quiet living space on board yachts. At low frequencies, however, the size and weight of passive treatments becomes too large and is often either impractical or significantly increases the weight of the yacht which in turn limits its speed and efficiency

One method of overcoming these problems is to use active control methods and this is the focus of this research project which is part of the TSB-funded TRANQuil project with Princess Yachts.

The initial aim of this research project is to investigate methods of actively controlling the noise produced by the standby generator on a Princess Yachts’ P60. The active noise control system employed to control the noise produced by the generator in the cabin adjacent to the engine room consisted of 3 loudspeakers and 8 microphones. This control system was able to achieve a 10 dB reduction in the sound pressure level at the generator firing frequency.