Int. J. Vehicle Noise and Vibration, Vol. 10, Nos.

1/2, 2014 77
Copyright 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.











A computational-efficient active sound tuning system
for steady-state and transient vehicle powertrain
response
J ie Duan, Mingfeng Li and Teik C. Lim*
Vibro-Acoustics and Sound Quality Research Laboratory,
Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied Science,
University of Cincinnati,
598 Rhodes Hall, P.O. Box 210072 Cincinnati,
OH 45221-0072, USA
Fax: (513)-556-3390
E-mail: duanje@mail.uc.edu
E-mail: limf@ucmail.uc.edu
E-mail: teik.lim@uc.edu
*Correspondence author
Abstract: Conventional vehicle active noise control (ANC) methods aimed
mainly at attenuating the cabin interior noise usually do not account for sound
quality effects. In this paper, an active sound tuning (AST) system is proposed
to reshape the vehicle powertrain response based on the predetermined vehicle
interior sound quality criteria. Since it is important to develop a
computational-efficient algorithm in real-world application, the time-frequency
domain filtered-x least mean square (TF-FXLMS) algorithm is utilised in the
AST system. The proposed TF-FXLMS algorithm significantly reduces the
computational complexity compared to the conventional time-domain FXLMS
algorithm by calculating the gradient estimate in frequency domain. The
proposed AST system applied to powertrain response is validated by tuning
individual engine order response, which is targeted for either enhancement or
attenuation, under both steady-state and transient operating conditions.
Keywords: active noise control; ANC; active sound tuning; AST; sound
quality; FXLMS algorithm; time-frequency domain; powertrain.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Duan, J., Li, M. and
Lim, T.C. (2014) A computational-efficient active sound tuning system for
steady-state and transient vehicle powertrain response, Int. J. Vehicle Noise
and Vibration, Vol. 10, Nos. 1/2, pp.7792.
Biographical notes: Jie Duan is a Senior Controls Engineer at Cummins Inc.,
and a member of SAE and INCE. His research interest includes active noise
control and adaptive signal processing. He received his BSc in Electronic
Science and Engineering from Nanjing University in 2006, MSc and PhD in
Mechanical Engineering from University of Cincinnati, in 2009 and 2011
respectively.
Mingfeng Li is a Research Associate at the University of Cincinnati, and a
member of ASME, SAE and INCE. His research area includes active noise and
vibration control, adaptive signal processing and vibro-acoustics. He received
his BSc in Acoustics from Nanjing University in 1994, MSc in Acoustics from
Institute of Acoustics/CAS in 1999, MSc in Mechanical Engineering from
University of Alabama in 2002, and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from
University of Cincinnati in 2005.









78 J. Duan et al.












Teik C. Lim is a Herman Schneider Professor of Mechanical Engineering and
the Interim Dean of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of
Cincinnati, USA. He serves in the editorial board for IJVNV, and also an
elected fellow of ASME and SAE. His research interest is in power
transmissions, vibro-acoustics, sound quality and active control. He received
his BSc (1985), MSc (1986) and PhD (1989) degrees in Mechanical
Engineering from Michigan Technological University, University of
Missouri-Rolla and Ohio State University, USA, respectively.

1 Introduction
Recently, there is heightened interest for automotive manufacturers to reduce the vehicle
weight for lower fuel consumption and CO
2
emission. Unfortunately, a lighter vehicle
structure is usually less effective in reducing the low-frequency noise components
transmitted into vehicle cabin as compared to a heavier structure. Powertrain is one of the
major noise sources that produce the low-frequency noise in the vehicle system. To
achieve more acceptable and pleasant sound quality in the vehicle cabin, the powertrain
noise must be well treated or tuned. Traditional passive noise control treatment tends to
add weight back to the vehicle structure, which is undesirable in producing a fuel
efficient vehicle. An alternative treatment for low-frequency noise is active noise control
(ANC), which is based on the theory of superposition of destructive sound waves. Both
of these two approaches are aimed to reduce the noise level as much as possible.
However, the perceived quality of sound is often the underlying concern. To avoid bulky
passive control approach and to tune the powertrain response perceived at the vehicle
occupant location rather than simply suppress it, active sound tuning (AST) is presented
in this paper to either enhance or attenuate the powertrain response selectively in order to
achieve a better sound quality experience for the occupants.
In the past two decades, development of active control strategy on vehicle application
has gained significant attention (Couche and Fuller, 1999; Duan and Lim, 2010; Duan
et al., 2011, 2013; Elliott et al., 1988; Elliott, 2008; Kobayashi et al., 2008; Li et al.,
2009, 2010, 2012; Mackay and Kenchington, 2004; Oswald, 1984; Scheuren et al., 2002;
Sutton et al., 1994). However, its practical application is still not widespread. Most active
control applications of vehicle interior noise utilised the time-domain filtered-x least
mean square (FXLMS) algorithm (Couche and Fuller, 1999; Duan et al., 2011; Elliott et
al., 1988; Elliott, 2008; Kuo and Morgan, 1996; Kobayashi et al., 2008; Li et al., 2008,
2009; Mackay and Kenchington, 2004; Oswald, 1984; Scheuren et al., 2002; Sutton et al.,
1994). Despite its popularity, the conventional time-domain FXLMS algorithm suffers
from heavy computational burden, especially for high-order adaptive filter and/or
multiple channel control applications. To address this drawback of the time-domain
FXLMS algorithm, some efforts have been made, such as frequency-domain adaptive
filter (Dentino et al., 1978; Duan et al., 2009a, 2009b; Ferrara, 1980; Kuo et al., 1997;
Mansour and Gray, 1982; Shynk, 1992), block processing adaptive filter (Clark et al.,
1981; Shen and Spanias, 1996) and partial updating adaptive filter (Douglas, 1997).
While useful, these methods often introduce an additional delay to the signal path
resulting in poorer tracking ability. However, in the transient disturbance applications,









A computational-efficient AST system for steady-state and transient vehicle 79












such as engine ramp-up noise, the tracking ability of adaptive algorithm is one of the
most important factors to achieve a better noise control performance.
In this paper, the AST system was designed based on the TF-FXLMS algorithm, in
which both control filtering and filter coefficients updating are implemented in
time-domain to minimise delay, and the gradient estimate used to update the filter
coefficients is calculated in frequency domain to reduce computational load. Similar idea
was described by Morgan and Thi (1995) for delayless subband adaptive filtering. Due to
the fact that the gradient is estimated in frequency domain, some efforts must be taken to
prevent circular correlation effect. Two approaches are implemented and compared in
this paper,
1 window-function implementation (Kosaka et al., 1997a, 1997b; Kuo et al., 2008)
2 overlap-save implementation (Shynk, 1992).
Furthermore, a unique design of adjusting the gradient estimate for powertrain noise
application is presented to further improve the tracking ability of the TF-FXLMS
algorithm.
This paper is organised as follows. Firstly, the computational-efficient AST system
for vehicle interior powertrain response based on TF-FXLMS algorithms is presented in
Section 2. Secondly, Section 3 analyses the computational complexities of the
TF-FXLMS algorithms and compares the results with those from the conventional
time-domain FXLMS algorithm. Finally, in Section 4, the salient features of proposed
AST system is demonstrated using both steady-state and transient powertrain response
cases.
2 Proposed AST system based on TF-FXLMS algorithm
The block diagram of the proposed AST system for powertrain response based on
TF-FXLMS algorithm is shown in Figures 1 and 2. In these applications, the feedforward
control strategy is used. Hence, high coherence between the reference signal and primary
disturbance response is required. Since the powertrain response contains a large number
of harmonics that are functionally related to the rotational speed of the engine, a
tachometer sensor is used to estimate the engine crankshaft speed by calculating the time
of one revolution in real time. Then, the reference signal generator synthesises a set of
sine waves having frequencies that are multiples of the engine rotational speed. Thus, the
reference signal can be expressed as:
( )
1
( ) 2
N
i s
i
x n nf f
=
=

(1)
where i is the engine order index, f
s
is the sampling rate and f
i
is the frequency of the i
th

order. f
i
= iv / 60, where v is the engine speed in revolution per minute (rpm). The
reference signal only includes the engine order frequencies that are targeted for control,
which allows for selective control.









80 J. Duan et al.












Figure 1 Block diagram of the proposed AST system for treating vehicle powertrain response
with window-function implementation of TF-FXLMS algorithm

Tachometer
signal
Reference signal
generator
2N-data
LMS
W(z) S(z)
2N-data
IFFT
Powertrain
response

( ) e n
c(n)
e(n)
y(n)
x(n)
( ) e
Drop the last N
coefficients
FFT
p(n)
FFT
( ) x
( ) S z
&&

x()
N-order filter
Window function Window function

Figure 2 Block diagram of the proposed AST system for treating vehicle powertrain response
with overlap-save implementation of TF-FXLMS algorithm


Padding previous N-data
Previous
N-data
Tachometer
signal
Reference signal
generator
N-data
FFT LMS
W(z)
FFT
S(z)
( ) e n
e(n)
y(n)
x(n)
'( ) e ( ) x
N-data
N-zeros
Padding N-zeros
( ) S z
&&

N-data
x()
N-data
Powertrain
response
c(n) p(n)
N-order filter
IFFT
Drop the last N
coefficients

To achieve more pleasant sound quality at the vehicle occupant locations, the AST
system is designed to tune the powertrain response rather than simply suppress it. Thus,
the proposed AST system introduces a desired signal, namely c(n). In this way, unlike









A computational-efficient AST system for steady-state and transient vehicle 81












traditional ANC approach that intends to minimise response at the error microphone
position, the proposed control system is aimed to let the resultant response sensed by the
error microphone to follow a predefined desired response. The desired signal c(n) is also
generated by sine wave generator based on the current engine speed, but its amplitude is
synthesised according to a certain pre-determined vehicle interior sound quality criteria.
Mathematically, c(n) is expressed as:
( )
1
( ) sin 2
N
i i s
i
c n c nf f
=
=

(2)
where c
i
is the amplitude of the i
th
order determined by vehicle interior sound quality
criteria. If c
i
equal to zero, the response of the i
th
order is targeted to be reduced as much
as possible. To be presented in the control algorithm, a pseudo-error signal '( ) e n is used
to update the adaptive filter coefficients instead of the error signal in the traditional active
noise attenuation problem, which is defined as:
'( ) ( ) ( ) e n c n e n = (3)
where e(n) is the residual error signal sensed by the error microphone and is the
difference between the primary disturbance (uncontrolled response) p(n) and the
secondary sound generated by control speaker.
2.1 Window-function implementation
The window-function implementation of proposed AST system by TF-FXLMS is
presented in Figure 1. In the conventional FXLMS algorithm, the gradient estimate,
defined as

( ) ( ) ( ), n x n e n = is updated sample by sample. In the contrast, the gradient

estimate of TF-FXLMS is updated in a lower rate, which is block by block. Thus, the
adaptive filter coefficients are also updated in a lower rate, such that the computational
complexity can be significantly reduced. However, lower update rate will not lead to
slower convergence rate. The block estimate provides a more accurate estimation of the
real gradient, due to the gradient estimate are averaged in block. To further reduce the
computational complexity, the block gradient estimate is calculated in frequency domain
by taking computational advantage of FFT. Because the FFT process inherently performs
a circular correlation, while the adaptive filter update process requires linear correlation,
some efforts have to be made to eliminate wrap-around effects caused by undesired
circular correlation. Then, the block gradient estimate is transferred back to the time
domain for updating the adaptive filter coefficient. It is assumed that the block size N is
equal to the order of the adaptive filter L. To obtain L
th
order time domain adaptive filter,
the 2N samples of reference signal x(n) and the 2N samples of pseudo-error signal '( ) e n
are accumulated into buffers separately to form two 2N-point data vectors, namely x()
and ( ) e given by:
[ ] ( ) ( 2 1) ( 2 2) ( )
T
x x N N x N N x N = + + L (4)
[ ] ( ) ( 2 1 ( 2 2) '( )]
T
e N N e N N e N = + + L e (5)
where ()
T
denotes the transpose operation and is block index.









82 J. Duan et al.












In order to eliminate the wrap-around effects, proper window functions are needed for
the reference and error signals before the FFT processes. Such windows include
rectangular window, rectangular window plus zero padding, Hanning window, and zero
padding plus rectangular window. The detailed discussion of choosing the correct
window functions can be found in the reference (Kosaka et al., 1997a, 1997b). The
windowed two data vectors x() and ( ) e are then transformed once every 2N samples
by a 2N-point FFT to produce a pair of frequency domain vectors expressed as:
[ ] { }
0 1 2 1
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
N
X X X FFT

= = L X x (6)
[ ] { }
0 1 2 1
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
N
E E E FFT

= L E e (7)
where X() and ( ) E are frequency-domain reference signal and pseudo error signal
vectors, respectively. To avoid distortion caused by the secondary path, the reference
signal has to be filtered by the secondary path transfer function that relates the speaker
control signal to the sound pressure response at the error microphone in the passenger
compartment. This is the well-known FXLMS algorithm. In practice, the secondary path
transfer function is usually unknown. However, it can be identified by injecting a small
amount of white noise v(n) through the control input speaker and measuring the response
at the error microphone. Then, the secondary path is modelled by i
th
order finite impulse
response (FIR) filter, whose coefficients are updated using the least mean square (LMS)
algorithm. This is called off-line system identification. The estimated secondary path is
denoted as ( ). s n
Here, to further reduce the computational complexity, we calculate the filtered
reference signal in frequency domain. To do so, the estimated secondary path transfer
function ( ) s n is transformed into frequency domain as

( ) S by the FFT process, where

1 2 1

( ) [ ( ) ( ) ( )].
N
S S S S

L Then, the gradient estimate is calculated as:

{ }

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) first N components of IFFT S = X E (8)

where ( ) denotes the complex conjugate operation and represents the gradient
estimate adjust factor vector. This vector stores the different values for different
frequencies. Hence, the gradient estimate at each frequency can be individually tuned to
the corresponding optimal one. By using this strategy, the algorithm can converge to
optimal solution faster and be with faster tracking ability. Because there are only N
coefficients of adaptive filter in time domain, the last N components of the gradient
estimate have to be dropped. Different from the following references (Kosaka et al.,
1997a, 1997b; Kuo et al., 2008), the TF-FXLMS algorithm in this paper only estimates
the gradient estimate that is used to update the adaptive filter coefficients in time domain.
Thus, there is no need to calculate the frequency-domain adaptive filter coefficients, and
the adaptive filter coefficients can be updated in time domain as:

( 1) ( ) ( ) + = + w w (9)
where is the step size that control the convergent speed of the adaptive algorithm. So
far, it can be seen that the adaptive filter updates in time domain every 2N samples. The
N
th
order time domain adaptive filter can be expressed as
0 1
( ) [ ( ) ( )] .
T
L
w w

= L w









A computational-efficient AST system for steady-state and transient vehicle 83












Hence, the output of the adaptive filter y(n), which is used to drive the secondary control
speaker, is given by y(n) = w
T
()x(n).
2.2 Overlap-save implementation
Overlap-save techniques is a method to convert circular correlation to linear correlation
(Shynk, 1992). To generate N correct gradient signals, it is required to use FFT of length
2N 1. In this paper, the FFT length is set as 2N, which is referred to as 50% overlap.
This implementation is illustrated for the active powertrain response tuning system, as
shown in Figure 2. The differences between the overlap-save implementation and the
window-function implementation presented in the last sub-section are highlighted by bold
blocks in Figure 2. To be more specific, only the N samples of reference and pseudo-error
signals are accumulated in the buffers to form two N-point data vectors x() and ( ), e as
compared to 2N-point in the window-function implementation.
[ ] ( ) ( 1) ( 2) ( )
T
x N N x N N x N = + + L x (10)
[ ] ( ) ( 1) ( 2) ( )
T
e N N e N N e N = + + L e (11)
However, on one hand, the overlap-save implementation keeps the previous block of data
of reference signal x( 1), and then pads it with the current block data x() to form
2N-point data vector, expressed as [x
T
( 1) x
T
()]
T
. On the other hand, it pads
N-point zero data with the vector '( ) e to form 2N-point vector, given as [0 0 ( )] .
T T
e L
The process is shown as padding the bold dashed blocks to the bold solid blocks in
Figure 2. Then the frequency domain reference and pseudo-error signals are calculated by
2N-point FFT, expressed as:
[ ]
{ }
0 1 2 1
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( 1) ( )
T
T T
N
X X X FFT

=

L X x x (12)
[ ]
{ }
0 1 2 1
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) 0 0 ( )
T
T
N
E E E FFT

=

L L E e (13)
Similarly, the gradient estimate is calculated as equation (8) and the adaptive filter
coefficients are updated in time-domain applying equation (9). As noted in the
overlap-save implementation, the adaptive filter coefficients update every N samples,
which is twice as frequently as the window-function implementation. Due to this reason,
the AST system with overlap-save implementation of TF-FXLMS algorithm is expected
to have better tracking ability for controlling the transient response than the
window-function one. However, it slightly increases the computational complexity.
3 Computational complexity analysis
This section evaluates the computational complexity of the TF-FXLMS algorithm as well
as the conventional time-domain FXLMS algorithm. The detailed derivation of the
time-domain FXLMS algorithm can be found in the reference (Kuo and Morgan, 1996).
This study is based on comparing the number of real multiplications and real additions
used for producing 2N samples of adaptive filter output signal. The n
th
order adaptive









84 J. Duan et al.












filter and i
th
order estimated secondary path filter are used in this analysis. For the
time-domain algorithm, the computational requirement for the adaptive filter output per
sample is N real multiplications and N 1 real additions, according to the output
calculation equation y(n) = w
T
(n)x(n). The computations required in calculating filtered
reference signal is I real multiplications and I 1 real additions per sample, based on
equation, '( ) ( ) * ( ), x n s n x n = where ( ) s n is the impulse response of the estimated
secondary path transfer function and * denotes the convolution process. To produce the
pseudo-error signal, 1 real addition is required. Furthermore, the adaptive filter updating
equation ( 1) ( ) '( ) ( ) n n e n n + = + w w x requires N + 1 real multiplications and N real
additions. Therefore, to produce 2N samples of output signal, the time-domain FXLMS
algorithm requires 2N(2N + I + 1) real multiplications and 2N(2N + I 1) real additions
in total.
The computations required by TF-FXLMS algorithm include two 2N-point FFTs
and one 2N-point inverse FFT processes. Each 2N-point FFT process requires
4N log
2
(2N) real multiplications and 4N log
2
(2N) real additions. Since the estimated
secondary path transfer function have been transformed to frequency domain,
which is expressed as

( ), S there is no need to calculate the filtered reference signal

separately. It is noted that the time domain to frequency domain transformation of
the estimated secondary path transfer function is implemented off-line, such that
it is not counted into the online computational complexity analysis here. The gradient
estimate given by equation (8) requires 20N real multiplications and 8N real additions
(a complex multiplication requires four real multiplications and two real additions
and that a complex addition requires two real additions), while the adaptive filter
updating equation (9) requires N real multiplications and N real additions. Thus,
to produce 2N samples of output signal, the total computations required by
window-function implementation of the TF-FXLMS algorithm are 2N N + 12Nlog
2
(2N)
+ 21N real multiplications and 2N(N 1) + 12Nlog
2
(2N) + 9N real additions. The
difference between window-function implementation and overlap-save implementation is
that the latter one updates twice as frequently as the former one. Thus, the total
computations required by overlap-save implementation of the TF-FXLMS algorithm are
2N N + 24Nlog
2
(2N) + 42N real multiplications and 2N(N 1) + 24Nlog
2
(2N) + 18N
real additions.
Clearly, the computation saved by using TF-FXLMS algorithm depends
on the selected orders of the adaptive filter W(z) and the estimated secondary path
filter

( ). S z Here, some examples are given in Figure 3. In Figure 3, the order of the
estimated secondary path filter I is set to be a fixed value of 256, and the order of the
adaptive filter N is varied from 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 and 1024. The x-axis is the
order (length) of the adaptive filter and the y-axis is the normalised computational
complexity (NCC) based on the number of computations. NCC is defined as a ratio of
the number of computations (real multiplications or real additions) of TF-FXLMS
algorithm over that of the conventional time-domain FXLMS algorithm. The solid curve
represents NCC of overlap-save implementation of TF-FXLMS, while the dashed curve
represents NCC of window-function implementation of TF-FXLMS. In addition, the
curve with up-triangle marker represents NCC of real multiplications, while the curve
with up-triangle marker represents NCC of real additions. It can be seen from the
Figure 3 that at least 50% computations can be saved by TF-FXLMS compared to









A computational-efficient AST system for steady-state and transient vehicle 85












the conventional time-domain FXLMS. For the numerical simulations of the active
powertrain response tuning shown in the next section, 128th order of the adaptive filter
and 256th order of the estimated secondary path filter are selected. In this case,
about 52% computations can be saved by overlap-save implementation of TF-FXLMS
algorithm and 65% by window-function implementation of TF-FXLMS. Even
though the TF-FXLMS algorithm is demonstrated by single-input single-output
(SISO) AST system in this paper, it can be easily extended to multiple-input
multiple-output (MIMO) system, which is expected to achieve less NCC comparing to
the SISO system.
Figure 3 NCC based on the number of computations, I = 256
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
Filter length
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d

C
o
m
p
u
t
a
t
i
o
n
a
l

C
o
m
p
l
e
x
i
t
y

Notes: Up-triangle marker , real multiplications; circle marker , real additions;
dashed curve - - -, window-function implementation; and solid curve ,
overlap-save implementation.
4 Computer simulation
The proposed computational-efficient AST systems of vehicle powertrain response with
different TF-FXLMS algorithms are studied and compared numerically by using
MATLAB/Simulink (MATLAB/Simulink R2007b). The powertrain noises along with
the tachometer signals were recorded experimentally on a test vehicle with a six-cylinder
engine. The tachometer signal is used to generate the reference and desired signals as
discussed in Section 2. The secondary speaker is placed at headrest position of the driver,
while the error microphone is located at the ceiling of the passenger compartment directly
above the drivers head position. The secondary path transfer function is measured by
using system identification approach with LMS algorithm (Kuo and Morgan, 1996) and
modelled as 256th order FIR filter, whose amplitude and phase responses are shown in
Figure 4. In all simulations, the adaptive filter length is 128 and the sampling rate is
4,096 Hz.










86 J. Duan et al.












Figure 4 Magnitude and phase response of the estimated secondary path transfer function
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e

(
d
B
)
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
-5
0
5
P
h
a
s
e

(
r
a
d
)
Frequency (Hz)

Figure 5 Active sound tuning simulation results for a constant engine speed of 3,500 rpm case
100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Frequency (Hz)
M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e

(
d
B
)

10 dB
3rd
4th

Notes: Solid curve , baseline noise response; dashed curve - - -, window-function
implementation of TF-FXLMS; and dotted curve , overlap-save
implementation of TF-FXLMS.
Two specific cases are analysed in this paper. The first case is a constant engine speed
example, while the second one involves run-up engine speed. For demonstration purpose,
in both cases, the goal is to reduce the response of the 3rd engine order as much as
possible and enhance the response of the 4th engine order to a predetermined value, while
keep the other orders unchanged. In the first case, the engine was running at constant
speed of 3,500 rpm and the spectrum of the powertrain response is shown as the solid
curve in Figure 5. The control period is 5 seconds, while the last 8,192 samples of
pseudo-error signal after reaching convergence is taken as the steady-state response. The
simulation results are also shown in Figure 5. The desired response level of the 4th order
is labelled by the asterisk symbol (*). The dashed and dotted curves are control results by
window-function implementation and overlap-save implementation of TF-FXLMS
algorithm, respectively. Their resultant responses are very close to each other. It is seen









A computational-efficient AST system for steady-state and transient vehicle 87












that the reduction of response of the 3
rd
engine order is very obvious, which is about
20 dB. Also, the resultant response of the 4th engine order is enhanced to the desired
level.
Figure 6 Active sound tuning simulation results for an engine speed run-up case, (a) 3rd order
response reduction (b) 4th order response enhancement
1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
Engine speed (rpm)
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

(
d
B
A
)
10 dB

(a)
1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
Engine speed (rpm)
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

(
d
B
A
)
10 dB

(b)
Notes: Solid curve , baseline noise response; dashed curve - - -, window-function
implementation of TF-FXLMS algorithm; dotted curve , overlap-save
implementation of TF-FXLMS algorithm.
The second case involves the engine speed ramping up. This simulation is designed not
only to test the AST performance for transient powertrain response, but to analyse the
tracking ability of the proposed TF-FXLMS algorithms. In this case, the amplitude and
frequency of the primary powertrain response are time-varying, which are related to the
varying engine speed. Again, the goal is to reduce the response of the 3rd order and









88 J. Duan et al.












enhance the response of the 4th order. One can expect that the algorithm which has better
tracking ability will yield more reduction at the 3rd order and closer to the desired value
at the 4th order. The time duration for the entire process is 30 seconds, during which the
speed increases from 1000 rpm to 3600 rpm. Comparisons between the control results of
the two implementations of TF-FXLMS algorithm are shown in Figure 6(a) and Figure
6(b). The step size for each simulation is chosen to be the largest value while still
ensuring the stability of the adaptive algorithm. In Figure 6, the solid curve is baseline
response, while the dashed and dotted curves represent the control results by using the
window-function and overlap-save implementations of TF-FXLMS algorithm,
respectively. It can be seen that the overlap-save implementation yields more reduction in
Figure 6(a) and closer to the desired value in Figure 6(b) compared to the
window-function implementation. Thus, it is concluded that the overlap-save
implementation has better tracking ability than the window-function implementation as
the expectation. From the Figure 6(a) and Figure 6(b), one should notice that none of the
algorithms can achieve any reduction for 3rd order or closer to the desired value for the
4th order when the engine speed is smaller than 1,800 rpm. In fact, since the adaptive
filter is updated in the time domain, the step size is fixed for all frequencies. That means
the step size is large enough to achieve fast convergence in the high speed range,
however, it is relatively small for the low engine speed range, due to the lower power of
the filtered reference signal in the low frequency range. If one further increases the step
size for achieving better performance at low speed range would result in the system
unstable when the engine speed reaches the high speed range. Fortunately, the
TF-FXLMS algorithm calculates the gradient estimate in frequency domain. Thus, it is
able to adjust the gradient estimate for each frequency bin by tuning in equation (8).
Generally, the gradient estimate adjust factor for each frequency bin can be normalised
with respect to the inverse power of the filtered reference signal (Shynk, 1992), as:
2
1

m
m m

X S
= (14)
where
m
is the adjust factor for the m
th
frequency bin, || || indicates the Euclidean norm
operator of the vector, and

m m
X S is the filtered reference signal in the corresponding
frequency bin m. However, in the active powertrain response tuning application, the
reference signal x(n) only contains sinusoidal signals that correlated with the targeted
engine orders, so that the frequency-domain reference signal X
m
may have zero power in
some frequency bins. If the equation (14) is used, the adjust factors for these frequency
bins could be infinite. Even though one can add a small constant value to the estimated
power, the algorithm is still easy to cause unstable. A modification has been made to
avoid the infinite or very large adjust factor in this paper. Since the reference signal is
generated by a sine wave generator, the amplitude of the reference signal can be
arbitrarily set to unit value. To follow the same logic above, the adjust factor for each
frequency bin in the frequency range of interest can be modified as:
2

m
m

S
= (15)









A computational-efficient AST system for steady-state and transient vehicle 89












Figure 7 Comparison of the performances of TF-FXLMS algorithms with or without gradient
estimate adjust factor, (a) 3rd order response reduction (b) 4th order response
enhancement
1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
Engine speed (rpm)
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

(
d
B
A
)

10 dB

(a)
1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
Engine speed (rpm)
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

(
d
B
A
)
10 dB

(b)
Notes: Solid curve , baseline noise response; dotted curve , without the
gradient estimate adjust factor; dashed-dotted curve - - -, with the gradient
estimate adjust factor.
The simulations are conducted by using the same powertrain responses as the second
case. Figure 7(a) and Figure 7(b) show the comparison results of the overlap-save
implementation of TF-FXLMS algorithm with and without the gradient estimate adjust
factor for each frequency bin. It is noted that the equation (15) can be also used by the
window-function of TF-FXLMS algorithm. Again, the solid curve is the baseline
response. The two implementations have similar performance when the engine speed is
larger than 2,500 rpm, but show fairly large discrepancy at low engine speed range. The
TF-FXLMS algorithm with the gradient estimate adjust factor (dash-dotted curve) shows









90 J. Duan et al.












much better performance than the one without the gradient estimate adjust factor (dotted
curve) when the engine speed is smaller than 2,500 rpm. The enhancements appear to
improve the system performance when the amplitude response of secondary path varies
significantly with frequency. This is clearly shown in Figure 4 where the amplitude
response of secondary path transfer function shows more dynamic at low speed range
(about 20 dB change between 50 Hz and 125 Hz that corresponds to 1,000 to 2,500 rpm
range) than it at high speed range (about 5 dB change between 125 Hz and 180 Hz that
corresponds to 2,500 to 3,600 rpm range).
5 Conclusions
A computational-efficient AST system for treating vehicle powertrain response is
proposed in this paper, which reshapes the powertrain response rather than simply
suppresses it. Both constant and run-up engine speed cases are simulated. Even though
only one enhanced order and one reduced order are exemplified, the proposed control
system are capable of tuning more complex cases based on different sound quality
requirements, for example, different types of vehicles. Two implementations of
TF-FXLMS algorithm are compared in their computational complexity and tracking
ability. Based on the analysis, the overlap-save implementation shows better tracking
ability for transient powertrain response, but requires slightly more computations than the
window-function implementation. However, compared to the standard time-domain
FXLMS algorithm, both significantly reduce the computational complexity. Furthermore,
the tracking ability of TF-FXLMS algorithm can be improved by adjusting the gradient
estimate for each frequency bin. Based on the potential seen in the simulations, the
proposed AST system will be tested by an on-road experiment in the near future.
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