Objective

If measurements are possible only at the hull of a machine, a tool is needed to separate the dominating near-field components from the far-field components. This, in turn, allows the far-field levels to be estimated. The separation is often not possible using spectral methods, because both components have nearly the same frequency. Using a limited number of microphones, a modal separation is also impossible. Instead of a modal analysis, a principal component analysis is applied.

Method

The narrow-band Fourier transform method is used, and a separate analysis is conducted for each frequency. The cross-power matrix spanning all microphone positions is used. The components are then calculated using the PCA. As long as the modes at the microphone positions have different relative values, PCA can be used to separate them. In an initial test, the far field is observed and the transfer function for every component from the near field to the far field is estimated. These transfer functions are assumed to be constant in time. They are used for the estimation of the overall far-field level.

Application

Observation of the far-field level of machines.