Effect of the electric field on the sound transmission loss of double-walled electro-rheological fluid sandwich plates with functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced composite facesheets

Abstract

Numerous studies have been conducted to examine the vibroacoustic characteristics of lightweight double-walled structures due to the anticipated applications of these structures in noise reduction engineering. In this study, third-order shear deformation theory (TSDT) is used to develop a theoretical model that predicts sound transmission loss (STL) across double-walled electro-rheological fluid (ERF) sandwich plates with functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) facesheets. The extended rule of mixture is utilized to evaluate the properties of the FG-CNTRC material in the thickness. Depending on the four FG models, the CNT volume fraction varies. A sufficient displacement continuity condition is taken into account between layers. Furthermore, it should be noted that changing the electric field affects the pre-yield zone’s ERF features. The vibroacoustic equations are derived using Hamilton’s principle and solved utilizing weighted residual (Galerkin) technique considering simply supported and clamped boundary conditions. Several studies are done to compare the results of the suggested model with other results found in the literature. An extensive numerical study is conducted to examine the dependence of STL on several parameters, including electric field strength, volume percentage of the CNTs, CNTs distribution, depth of acoustic cavity.