Research project: Optimisation of Acoustic Systems for Perceived Sound Quality
Computational design optimisation has been used in a variety of applications to improve the performance of complex systems by reaching a trade-off between multiple design objectives within certain constraints. The design of acoustic systems to achieve high sound quality is a challenging problem, in part due to the complexity of human auditory perception, and as such has not exploited the potential of design optimisation. The aim of this project is to investigate the application of design optimisation methods to acoustic systems, where the objective is to maximise the perceived sound quality. This will assist designers by reducing the number of prototypes that need to be built and tested, and could be applied to both devices whose primary function is noise generation, for example loudspeakers, and devices that produce noise as a by-product of their primary function, for example household fans.