Abstract: Aiming at the problem of frequent abnormal outboard noise in ships, an abnormal noise source location method is proposed, and a location model checked by the double cylindrical shell experiment is built. The model calculates the coordinates through the improved hyperbolic positioning method on the basis of the traditional hyperbolic positioning method, with the time-delay estimation by the generalized cross-correlation method as the input. In the process of the experiment, the outboard abnormal noise source is simulated by the percussion, comparing the positioning accuracy of the two methods and analyzing the influence of time-delay estimation on positioning accuracy. The results show that the hyperbolic positioning method based on double cylindrical shell can accurately locate the coordinates of abnormal noise sources, and is feasible for the abnormal outboard noise source positioning of ships. In addition, the method can provide theoretical guidance for the location of abnormal outboard noise sources.