In-situ characterisation of structure borne noise from a
building mounted wind turbine

Elliott, AS; Moorhouse, AT

Abstract

Building mounted micro wind turbines (BMWTs) could potentially provide a useful contribution to
renewable energy production but a means of predicting structure-borne sound and vibration is required. A
particular difficulty is that BMWTs can only be operated when properly installed, therefore any source
characterization measurements must be conducted in situ. Methods such as inverse force synthesis are
possible but would only give a description of the source activity for a specific case. This paper describes
the application of a new source characterization procedure whereby a source (BMWT) is characterized in
terms of blocked forces measured in-situ. The main advantages of the approach are that (1) all required
measurements can be performed in-situ and (2) the blocked forces obtained are an independent property of
the source and can therefore be transferred to predict levels in different installations. Examples of
measurements on idealized structures and on a mock-up wind turbine installation are given. The validity
of the approach is confirmed by comparing measured and predicted velocity at different points on the
same receiver structure and in a different receiver structure.

Citation

building mounted wind turbine. Presented at ISMA 2010, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: ISMA 2010
• Conference Location: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.
• Start Date: Sep 20, 2010
• End Date: Sep 22, 2010
• Publication Date: Sep 20, 2010
• Deposit Date: Oct 19, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Keywords: Structure borne sound, in-situ, blocked force, vibration, acoustics
• Publisher URL: http://www.isma-isaac.be/
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference; References : [1] T ten Wolde, G. R. Gadefelt, Development of standard measurement methods for structure borne sound emission, Noise Control Engineering Journal, Vol 28, No. 1 (1987), pp 5-14. [2] International Standards Organisation. ISO 9611:1996 Acoustics – characterization of sources of structure-borne sound with respect to sound radiation from connected structures. Measurement of velocity at the contact points of machinery when resiliently mounted, (1996). [3] LMS application notes on transfer path analysis. The Qualification and Quantification of Vibroacoustic Transfer Paths. (1995). [4] A. Gaudin and L. Gagliardini, Recent improvements in road noise control. SAE 2007 Noise and Vibration Conference and Exhibition. SAE International, (2007). [5] A. T. Moorhouse, A. S. Elliott, T. A. Evans, In-situ Measurement of the blocked force of structureborne sound sources. Journal of Sound and Vibration, Vol 325, No. 4-5, (2009) Elsevier, pp 679-685. [6] A. S. Elliott, Chracterisation of structure borne sound sources in-situ. PhD Thesis, University of Salford, Salford, UK, 2009. [7] M. Bauer, A. T. Moorhouse, T. Alber, Indirect In-situ determination of blocked forces. DAGA 2010, Berlin, (2010). [8] A. T. Moorhouse, A. S. Elliott, Application of an in-situ measurement method for characterisation of structure-borne sound generated by building-mounted wind turbines. Internoise 2010, Lisbon, (2010).; Funders : Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); Projects : SGRA01, SGRA02