Journal of Computational Acoustics

This paper reviews the equivalent source method (ESM), an attractive alternative to the standard boundary element method (BEM). The ESM has been developed under different names: method of fundamental solutions, wave superposition method, equivalent source method, etc. However, regardless of the method name, the basic concept is very similar; that is to use auxiliary points called equivalent sources to reconstruct the acoustic pressure for radiation or scattering problems. The strength of the equivalent sources are then determined via various approaches such that the boundary conditions on the boundary surface are satisfied. This paper reviews several frequency-domain and time-domain ESMs. There are several distinct advantages in these types of methods: (1) the method is a meshless approach so that it is easy and simple to implement; (2) it does not have a numerical singularity problem that occurs in the BEM; (3) the number of equivalent sources can be fewer than the number of surface collocation points so that the matrix size is reduced and a fast computation is achieved for large problems. The main issue of the ESM is that there is no rule to find out the optimal number and position of equivalent sources. In addition, the ESM suffers from the numerical instability that is associated with the ill-conditioned matrix. Some guidelines have been suggested in terms of finding the number and position of the sources, and several numerical techniques have been developed to resolve the numerical instability. This paper reviews the common theories, numerical issues and challenges of the ESM, and it summarizes recent developments and applications of the ESM to aircraft noise.

In this paper sound propagation through an air-filled circular duct containing water droplets has been studied by solving numerically one-dimensional linearized Euler equations in frequency domain. Interactions between the liquid and gas phases were accounted for by proper source terms. Waves were introduced into the domain via Perfectly Matched Layers (PML) equations applied in finite regions adjacent to the truncated ends of the duct. Absorption and dispersion results due to energy transfer from air to the water droplets were obtained as a function of average droplet diameter and droplet concentration as well as finite mass loading. Results agree well with those available in the literature.

In ocean waveguides, the ocean bottom is usually approximated as a half-space. Thus, there exist no reflection waves at the half-space bottom and condition of radiation at infinity should be satisfied. In numerical solutions like parabolic equation methods, the depth domain has to be truncated, which can generate reflection waves from the truncated ocean bottom. To reduce the effect of reflection waves and to simulate an unbounded ocean bottom accurately, an artificial absorbing layer (ABL) was used. As was demonstrated, an ABL meets well the demand of accuracy in sound field calculation. However, both the sea-bottom layer and the artificial absorbing layer are needed to be set quite thick by using an ABL technique. Fortunately, a PML with several wavelengths can keep similar calculation accuracy with an ABL with dozens of wavelengths. In this paper, perfectly matched layer (PML) techniques for three parabolic equation (PE) models RAM, RAMS and a three-dimensional PE model in underwater acoustics are presented. A key technique of PML “complex coordinate stretching” is used to truncate unbounded domains and to simulate infinity radiation conditions instead of the ABL in those models. The numerical results illustrate that the PML technique is of higher efficiency than the ABL technique at truncating the infinity domain with minimal spurious reflections in PE models.

Full interaction between structural and fluid domains must be considered for light structures immersed in heavy fluid (e.g. thin steel shells in water). The structural-acoustic design sensitivity analysis provides information on the effect of the design variable on acoustic performance, which makes it a key step for noise control and structural-acoustic optimization. This study uses the finite element method (FEM) to model the structure domain, while the fast multipole boundary element method (BEM) is applied to the exterior acoustic domain. An adjoint operator approach is developed to calculate the sensitivity of the radiated sound power with respect to the design variables, which can be any structural or fluid parameter (e.g. fluid or structural density, Poisson’s ratio, Young’s modulus, and geometric measures). Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the validity and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

This paper is concerned with the problem of obtaining a unique solution for radiation at irregular frequencies when an integral equation of frequency averaged quadratic pressure (FAQP) is used to get robust predictions at medium and high frequencies. It is proved that there is no unique solution of the integral equation of FAQP at irregular frequencies, and existence and uniqueness of solutions under four types of boundary conditions are discussed. A combined energy boundary integral equation formulation (CEBIEF) is presented and proves to be efficient to overcome the nonuniqueness of the integral equation of FAQP. The numerical examples are given to demonstrate the versatility of the CEBIEF method with a proposed function correctly indicating a solution.

The effective coefficients for the problem of propagation of acoustic waves in multifractal elastic media using the subgrid modeling approach are obtained. The maximum scale of heterogeneities of the medium in question is assumed to be small as compared with the wavelength. If a isotropic medium is assumed to satisfy the improved Kolmogorov similarity hypothesis, the term for the effective coefficient of the elastic stiffness coincides with the Landau–Lifshitz–Matheron formula. Both isotropic and anisotropic media are considered. The numerical testing for the wave propagating at a distance, which is of the same order as a typical wavelength of a source, illustrates the efficiency of the approach proposed.