Narrow Results

Sound transmission through partitions can be modeled as an acoustic fluid–elastic structure interaction problem. The block Gauss–Seidel iterative method is used in order to solve the finite element linear system of equations. The blocks are defined, respecting the fluid and structural domains. The convergence criterion is analyzed and interpreted in physical terms by means of simple one-dimensional problems. This analysis highlights the negative influence on the convergence of a strong degree of coupling between the acoustic domains and the structure. A selective coupling strategy has been developed and applied to problems with strong coupling (e.g. double walls).

The vibration, sound radiation and transmission characteristics of plates with various functionally graded materials (FGM) are explored and a detailed investigation is presented on the influence of specific material properties on structural–acoustic behavior. An improved model based on a simplified first order shear deformation theory along with a near-field elemental radiator approach is used to predict the radiated acoustic field associated with a given vibration and acoustic excitation. Various ceramic materials suitable for engineering applications are considered with aluminum as the base metal. A power law is used for the volume fraction distribution of the two constitutive materials and the effective modulus is obtained using the Mori–Tanaka homogenization scheme. The structural–acoustic response of these FGM plates is presented in terms of the plate velocity, radiated sound power, sound radiation efficiency for point and uniformly distributed load cases. Increase in both vibration and acoustic response with increase in power law index is observed for the lower order modes. The vibro–acoustic metrics such as root-mean-squared plate velocity, overall sound power, frequency averaged radiation efficiency and transmission loss, are used to rank these materials for vibro–acoustically efficient combination. Detailed analysis has been made on the factors influencing the structural–acoustic behavior of various FGM plates and relative ranking of particular ceramic/metal combinations.

This paper presents a theoretical model to study sound transmission through a micro-perforated double-walled sandwich cylindrical shell with emphasis on the potential of internal gap flow to improve the sound insulation performance. This model adopts Donnell’s thin shell theory to govern the shell motions and a simplified model based on Biot’s theory to describe sound propagation in the porous lining. The mean acoustic particle velocity model with the grazing flow effect is applied to define the coupling condition between the fluid medium and the perforated shell. Transmission loss (TL) through the configuration with one gap flow is numerically calculated using the mode superposition method when subjected to an oblique plane wave in the presence of an external mean flow. Results reveal that the gap flow in the opposite direction to the external flow would elevate the mid-frequency TL. Gap depth has a complicated effect on TL since it influences the aerodynamic damping of the gap flow and sound dissipation in the porous layer. The average TL in 20–20000Hz is then optimized with a genetic algorithm, and an increase of 17.82 dB is finally achieved. The possibility of tuning the structural sound insulation performance by the gap flow has been verified.