Noise Control and Acoustic Division (NCAD)

NCAD Information

Founded in 1979 and established as a division in 1981, the Noise Control and Acoustics Division meets yearly, usually at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (ASME IMECE). Starting in 2008, when NCAD had a joint session with INCE (Institute of Noise Control Engineering), NCAD has attended INTER-NOISE every three years since 2012. Our next joint session will be INTER-NOISE 2018. Our division works in noise and vibration control, using computational techniques, analytical methods, and measurements to study complex aero-acoustic, hydro-acoustic, and structural-acoustic systems. The application of active and passive control systems is of consideration as well. Our symposia usually include sessions on flow-induced vibration and sound, structural acoustics, phonic structures, and active control.

NCAD reaches its members through the ASME Community website:https://community.asme.org/noise_control_acoustics_division/default.aspx. The website has a wealth of information and includes past newsletters, along with selected Rayleigh lecture and tutorial presentations from past conferences. NCAD also has a Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/pages/NCAD-Noise-Control-and-Acoustics-Division/211722612197712. We will update this page with news and notes throughout the year. Please “Like” the page to follow our updates.

Report from the Chair, Charlie Zheng

This year we progressed further to fulfill NCAD’s goals to promote the development and application of noise control and acoustic principles, to encourage the interchange of ideas through technical meetings and publications, and to acknowledge exceptional engineering achievement within the field. The biggest event for NCAD in 2016 was a successful track sponsored by NCAD on Vibration, Acoustics, and Wave Propagation at the annual ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE) held in Phoenix, AZ. Dr. Sue Sung was the NCAD track organizer. NCAD had a total of 18 technical sessions, with approximately 90 presentations. Good job, Sue!

At IMECE 2016, Dr. Victor W. Sparrow, Professor and Director of Graduate Program in Acoustics at Penn State University, received the 2016 Rayleigh Lecture Award. He gave a fantastic speech on “Two Approaches to Reduce the Noise Impact of Overland Civilian Supersonic Flight.” His speech provided a basis to understand sonic booms and the ongoing work to enable overland supersonic flight for civilian aircraft. We also organized the NCAD tutorial workshop as the track plenary session, and Professor Miao Yu from the University of Maryland was the tutorial speaker on “Acoustic Sensing Technology.” Acoustic sensors play an important role in many areas. In her tutorial, Professor Yu reviewed different acoustic sensor technologies and recent efforts by her group on the development of acoustic sensing technologies. A plenary talk was given by Bahram Djafari-Rouhani of the University of Lille entitled, “Presentation: Phonon Tunneling Through Vacuum Cavity in Finite Piezoelectric Superlattice.” Past tutorials and Rayleigh Lectures sponsored by NCAD are also available at:https://community.asme.org/noise_control_acoustics_division/m/default.aspx.

The NCAD student paper competition was organized at IMECE 2016. This time, as a new improvement decided by the NCAD leadership group, we recognized three student papers to receive the awards in order to increase the impact of ASME on the incoming professional generation. The student papers were judged based on the quality of both the written paper and the oral presentation at IMECE 2016. Mr. Plinio Ferreira Pinto from Memorial University in St. Johns, Canada; Mr. Dante Tufano from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, USA; and Mr. Junjian Zhang from University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS, USA, won the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places, respectively, for this year’s ASME NCAD student paper competition. I would also like to thank the student paper competition committee, headed by Ab Kirwan, for its diligent work in reviewing the papers and attending the students’ presentations.

Per Bruel Gold Medal Recipient: Patricia Davies

Patricia Davies received the 2016 Per Bruel Gold Medal for Noise Control and Acoustics from ASME. She was recognized “for exceptional leadership and educational mentorship in the field of noise control and acoustics; and for outstanding contributions to noise control engineering in the areas of signal processing, nonlinear dynamic modeling, product sound quality, and human response to noise and vibration.” Davies has served as the director of Purdue’s Herrick Labs since 2005, overseeing an acoustics laboratory, among several other areas of research. (Reprinted from Purdue University Mechanical Engineering Department)

Future NCAD Meetings, Ab Kirwan

The Noise Control and Acoustics Division (NCAD) of ASME is excited to be sponsoring a technical track on Acoustics, Vibration, and Phononics at IMECE 2017 in Tampa, FL, USA. This year’s conference takes place November 3–9. Note this year’s conference is a week earlier than previous IMECE conferences. Authors are invited to contribute manuscripts, extended abstracts, abstracts, presentations, or posters. Studies may be experimental, theoretical, or numerical in nature. Industrial experiences related to these areas are of particular interest. Additional information regarding IMECE 2017 is available at the conference website:https://www.asme.org/events/imece.

NCAD Leadership

Group Leadership Team Members

The activities of the division are directed by the Group Leadership Team (GLT, formerly the Executive Committee), which establishes the Division’s policy and goals. The GLT is supported by other committees as needed. Members of the GLT serve for five years, spending one year in each of the roles. The committee members for 2016–2017 are:

Charlie Zheng, University of Kansas, Chair
Kristin Cody, Naval Nuclear Laboratory, Vice Chair
Sue Sung, Retired, Secretary/Treasurer
Ab Kirwan, Electric Boat Corporation, Program Chair
Weidong Zhu, University of Maryland, Member
Brent Paul, Alion Science and Technology, Group Page Administrator

Technical Committees

Phononic Crystals and Metamaterials Committee
Chair: Mahmoud I. Hussein, mih@colorado.edu

Structural Acoustics and Noise Control Committee
Chair (acting): Albert (Ab) Kirwan, aekirwan@yahoo.com

Aero/Hydro Acoustics Committee
Chair: Bob Tomko, tomkorp@yahoo.com