A coupling FEM/BEM method for acoustic-structural interaction problems in uniform relative motion between structure source and fluid

Abstract

When a vibrating thin structure moves in a heavy flow field, the effect of sound waves on the structure cannot be ignored. This effect is especially pronounced when the relative velocity of the structure and the flow field increases. The hybrid numerical method of finite element method (FEM) and convective boundary element method (BEM) is proposed to solve acoustic-structural interaction problems in uniform relative motion between structure source and fluid. Besides, an acoustic-analogy Lorentz transform is proposed to handle the direct convective boundary integral equation (BIE), which makes the convective BIE has the same form as traditional BIE so that there are no more convective terms and extra singular integrals. The continuity condition at the fluid-structure interface is also proposed to generate the coupling equation. Compared with the traditional FEM, this hybrid method has the advantages of greatly reducing the number of finite elements outside the structure as well as automatically satisfying the radiation condition at far field. And compared with the direct convective BIE, this method reduces the computational complexity and time. It is potential to deliver a solver with higher accuracy and less memory consumption. Some numerical examples are designed to study the influence of the convective effect. Keywords: Acoustic-structural interaction, Finite element method, Boundary element method, FEM-BEM coupling