The technique of active/inactive finite elements for the analysis and optimization of acoustical chambers

In this work are investigated two topics associated with numerical calculations of the transmission loss in acoustical silencers: analysis of acoustic chambers employing active/inactive finite elements and its optimization using the GA (genetic algorithm) with integer variables. The technical information on the use of active/inactive elements and the definition of all the design variables used for the entire control of the finite element mesh are detailed. Although simple, the numerical results for the examples analyzed show excellent convergence achieved with the combination of these two techniques for the optimization of symmetrical acoustic chambers.