PhD Candidate Sriganesh Recognized with Best Paper Award at SAE International Noise and Vibration Conference and Exhibition

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Pranav with his award

Pranav Sriganesh, PhD candidate and student of Professor Ahmet Selamet, won the Best Paper Award in the Student Paper Competition at the 2023 SAE International Noise and Vibration Conference and Exhibition.

His paper, titled “An Experimental Investigation of the Acoustic Performance of a High-Frequency Silencer for Turbocharger Compressors” provides the proof of concept following his earlier publication in the Noise Control Engineering Journal, where he proposed a novel high-frequency silencer for turbocharger noise with the help of acoustics and flow simulations.

Wave propagation through typical automotive turbocharger ducting becomes multi-dimensional owing to the small wavelengths at high frequencies. In contrast to computer simulations, where all aspects of the flow and acoustic fields are known, the multi-dimensional wave phenomenon makes it very challenging to experimentally determine the in-duct noise level due to its strong dependency on measurement location.

The current work overcomes this challenge with a unique rotating duct setup on the Turbocharger Gas Stand located in the Center for Automotive Research that quantifies the strength of the multi-dimensional sound field from turbochargers. The setup is then used to compare noise levels for turbocharger configurations with and without the novel silencer to reveal a dramatic 15+ dB (decibels) of noise attenuation across a wide target frequency range spanning 4 kHz, from 8 to 12 kHz. The novel silencer achieves this despite being purely reactive, that is, without using expensive and delicate absorptive materials. Therefore, the comprehensive experimental effort discussed in the paper proves that the novel silencer concept is extremely promising not only to tackle turbocharger noise but also a variety of applications requiring high-frequency noise suppression in ducts with flow. 

Sriganesh was the recipient of this award in 2021 as well, during the last time this conference was held.

“Winning it once is a great achievement by itself,” said Selamet. “Winning it twice in a row, in these fierce competitions is highly unusual, and speaks to the unique qualities, determination and the great promise of this young man.”

“I am delighted to win the best student paper award and be recognized by SAE for the second time at the Noise and Vibration Conference,” said Sriganesh. “This paper is a culmination of my research as a PhD student involving some neat computational and experimental endeavors. Special thanks to my advisor, Prof. Ahmet Selamet, for his continuous support, guidance, and encouragement. During my time at Ohio State as a graduate student, I have gained invaluable research experience by applying technical knowledge and creative thinking to solve many challenging problems relevant to the industry. Post-graduation, I look forward to taking on bigger projects with Prof. Selamet, contributing my computational and experimental expertise in turbomachinery to research at CAR and Ohio State. Go Bucks!”