A novel semi-analytical meshless method for the thickness optimization of porous material distributed on sound barriers

Abstract

This paper presents a novel semi-analytical meshless method to optimize the thickness of porous material distributed on sound barriers, by employing the Burton–Miller-type singular boundary method in conjunction with the method of moving asymptotes. Firstly, the Delany–Bazley–Miki model is utilized to characterize the acoustic property of sound barrier with a porous sound-absorbing material. Then, the sensitivity formula with respect to the thickness of the porous layer is derived based on the analytical computation and the adjoint variable formula, in which the design variable is a thickness parameter distributed between [0,1]. Finally, the optimal thickness distribution is achieved by solving the optimization model using the method of moving asymptotes. Compared to traditional algorithms, the proposed new method is simple, accurate, easy-to-program, and free of mesh and integration. Numerical experiments demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.