Design and Analysis of Environmental Control Systems Based on Acoustic Networks and Transfer Matrices

YANG Jiafeng; YAN Qun; XUE Dongwen; CHEN Yonghui

doi:10.7643/issn.1672-9242.2026.08.004

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Equipment Environmental Engineering ›› 2026, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (8) : 27-34. DOI: 10.7643/issn.1672-9242.2026.08.004

Special Topic——Comprehensive Environmental Strength Analysis and Testing Technology for Equipment

Design and Analysis of Environmental Control Systems Based on Acoustic Networks and Transfer Matrices

YANG Jiafeng, YAN Qun^*, XUE Dongwen, CHEN Yonghui

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Abstract

The work aims to enable the rapid prediction of the acoustic characteristics of pipeline in aircraft environmental control systems. An acoustic network method was utilized to abstract the pipeline as a combination of "2-ports, 1-ports, and nodes", and 2-port components were represented by acoustic scattering matrices. Based on the fundamental physical principle of pressure-volume velocity continuity at nodes, an assembly algorithm was developed for the global solution of acoustic fields in pipeline, which neither required meshing nor high-dimensional matrix operations. With a segment of the air distribution pipeline in a specific aircraft environmental control system as the research object, simulation analysis was carried out within the frequency range of 50-500 Hz, and the results were verified against those obtained by the finite element method (FEM). The comparison indicated an excellent agreement between the transmission loss (TL) spectra calculated by both methods, validating the reliability of the acoustic network approach. At the first resonant frequency 70 Hz of the pipeline, the TL peak reached 40 dB as a result of the combined effects of impedance mismatch and reflection at the branch node. In non-resonant frequency ranges where the sound wavelength was comparable to the pipeline dimensions, acoustic energy propagated throughout the entire pipeline, leading to very weak noise attenuation. The overall TL of the pipeline shows periodic fluctuations. This work offers an efficient theoretical tool for the rapid acoustic prediction and optimization design of complex pipelines.

Key words

environmental control systems / acoustic network methods / transfer matrix / scattering matrix / transmission loss / pipeline acoustics

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YANG Jiafeng, YAN Qun, XUE Dongwen, CHEN Yonghui. Design and Analysis of Environmental Control Systems Based on Acoustic Networks and Transfer Matrices[J]. Equipment Environmental Engineering. 2026, 23(8): 27-34 https://doi.org/10.7643/issn.1672-9242.2026.08.004

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