There has been a growing interest in the active suppression of noise in aircraft interiors in the recent past. While there are already many different technical solutions available in the form of active noise controllers using loudspeakers and structural sources, there is a need for low-profile acoustic sources that could be used for generating large volume velocities with high efficiency and low control effort. This paper presents an investigation into the potential usage of shallow-spherical-shell actuators (also known as RAINBOW actuators), made of piezoelectric materials supported on a flexible foundation along the edge, for such applications. The actuators have been modeled analytically and the effects of curvature, mount stiffness, mass and other parameters on the natural frequencies, linear stroke and volume velocity have been studied. Simulation results are presented and the potential for using the actuator as an efficient acoustic source has been discussed.
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