Energy harvesting and inter-floor impact noise control using an optimally tuned hybrid damping system

Impact-loaded floor structures radiate undesired sound waves into adjacent rooms, compromising the acoustic comfort. On the other hand, substantial structural vibrations caused by the impact loading offer a promising energy source for harvesting. Nevertheless, a systematic analytical or numerical investigation of simultaneous inter-floor impact sound transmission control and energy harvesting appears to be missing. Current study describes the conceptual development of a fully coupled 3D analytical model of a dual-functional double-plate floor structure optimized for hybrid regenerative control of inter-floor impact sound transmission. Leveraging multi-mode shunted piezoelectric and Electromagnetic Damper (EMD) energy transduction mechanisms, the model structure is composed of two PZT sandwich plates, which are interlinked through a Nonlinear Vibration Absorber (NVA)-based EMD. The finite Fourier cosine transform and standard normal mode approach are employed to treat the governing acousto-elastic equations. Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II is applied to tune the system parameters along Pareto frontiers to target maximum pressure mitigation, maximum energy harvesting, or dual-objective optimization, which hires advantageous features from both configurations for an optimal trade-off between them. Simulations reveal that elasto-acoustic response suppression and energy extraction of the employed stand-alone PZT-based conversion mechanism can be remarkably improved with the adopted optimized hybrid PZT/NVA/EMD-equipped system.