1. Introduction
The exhaust noise, which falls into low-frequency noise, is the dominant noise source of a diesel engines and tractors. It is a direct and effective way to reduce the exhaust noise by using an exhaust muffler. However, the traditional exhaust muffler, which are normally constructed by combination of expansion chamber, and perforated pipe or perforated board, are with high exhaust resistance, but poor
noise reduction especially for the low-frequency band noise. Normally, there is a contradiction between the noise reduction and the exhaust resistance for an exhaust silencer, so it has a great significance in studying the theory or principle of the exhaust muffler with high-efficiency noise reduction and energy saving [1]. To solve the problems of conventional mufflers, various attempts have been tried with only limited success. Active muffler systems, in which usually a speaker to cancel the exhaust noise is used, have been actively researched in recent years [2.4]. However, this method has failed to be commercialized due to some problems. Various other attempts like using an U-shaped bypass pipe attached to the original exhaust pipe, using the swirl phenomenon in mufflers, have also failed in commercial application due to numerous problems inherent in their design [5]. A new theory of exhaust silencer of diesel engine based on counter-phase and split-gas rushing has been proposed. The theory is, the dominant low-frequency noise components are controlled by counteract of two sound waves with counter-phases (180°phase difference); the other frequency-band noise is reduced by lowering the exhaust gas flow rate thus lowering exhaust noise. The exhaust resistance based on the new theory is low because of the structure without perforated pipe or perforated board where small holes are used, and the no reduction of gas-flow sections in all the way of gas flow.