Effect of modal overlap factor on the ray tracing analysis of the curved beam structure: A computational study

Abstract

Ray tracing method (RTM) of the geometrical acoustics area is recently known to be useful for the evaluation of spatial distribution of energy density and power flow of vibrating structures at high frequencies. In this study, the spatial distribution of vibrational energy and power flow of curved beam and its connected structures are of interest. Longitudinal, flexural, and torsional waves are considered using the Euler–Bernoulli beam theory. In the analysis of spatial distribution, the band-averaged RTM result varies smoothly in space without local fluctuations. This means that the RTM result can represent a similar tendency to the traveling wave solution. An accuracy of the analysis depends on the modal overlap factor (MOF), which is the function of the length of the beam, frequency range, and structural loss factor. The effect of changing each parameter is investigated and discussed. Similar to other high frequency methods such as statistical energy analysis and power flow analysis, the results become close to the traveling wave solutions as the modal overlap factor increases. [Work supported by the BK21 project and NRL.]