The 1980s—The glory years for the development of active noise and vibration control

Abstract

In the field of acoustics in general, and structural acoustics in particular, a new “hot topic” seems to burst upon the scene once or twice each decade. Everyone wants to get involved, numerous sessions on the topic appear at our meetings, and progress on the topic seems to leap forward—at least until the next hot topic comes along. In the 1980s, active noise and vibration control burst upon the scene, becoming the then current hot topic, as advances in digital signal processing made the technique much more attractive. The number of publications and presentations on the topic exploded, and active control was the bandwagon that everyone wanted to be on. The author was just beginning his career during this time period and was able to begin pursuing research on this topic in the early stages of the explosion. The intense interest in the topic continued until about the mid-1990s. This paper will review some of that early activity, what advances were made, why the interest seemed to decline in the 1990s, and what the current state of the discipline is as the research has continued to slowly move forward over the intervening years.