INFLUENCE OF ENCLOSED AIR ON VIBRATION MODES OF A SHELL STRUCTURE

Abstract

Experiments show that enclosed air in a thin walled structure affects some modes of vibration significantly. Air coupling between vibrating sides of the structure cannot (always) be neglected and frequencies cannot be predicted if calculations are performed as if in a vacuum. As a first attempt to include the enclosed air in a FE model of a violin body, the elastic properties of the air are modelled as a set of one dimensional non-interacting elastic members (columns of air) connecting opposite sides of the orthotropic shell structure. This admittedly oversimplified (but easy to formulate) model must be used with great care, since it neglects the three-dimensional wave behaviour of the enclosed air. A lower limit of allowed frequencies is that which corresponds to a wavelength in air which is much greater than a characteristic length of the object. For the violin this lower limit is less than about 600 Hz. Optical modal analysis of the real, physical, violin model has been performed by using electronic holography. Calculated modes of vibration are compared with experimental ones. For the lowest eigenmodes a good agreement between measured and calculated frequencies is reached despite the simple air model used. Modal shapes remain surprisingly unaffected. For some engineering calculations the simple one-dimensional model might be used.