Interface mobilities for characterization of structure-borne sound sources resiliently mounted via multiple contact points

Abstract

This paper introduces an expansion of the interface mobility method for structure-borne sound sources that are resiliently mounted to a receiving structure at multiple discrete contact points. Subsystems of source, receiver and isolators are represented by Fourier transforms of their mobility matrices. Along with the source activity, a formulation for the transmitted power fed into the receiver is obtained. Furthermore, the source descriptor and a coupling function for resiliently mounted multi-point sources are obtained which both form recognized concepts for structure-borne sound source characterization. The method is based on a neglection of cross-order terms which describe a coupling between Fourier coefficients of different order. With regard to a subsystem of discretely placed isolators, cross-order terms were found to account for variations of isolator parameters along the contact points. In a set of numerical studies it was shown that errors introduced by neglecting cross-order terms are most pronounced in the higher frequency region where isolators show resonant behavior due to internal wave effects. A subsystem of identical isolators is completely described by equal-order terms, therefore no error is introduced considering such cases. Moreover, errors inherent in the rigidly mounted case due to cross-order source or receiver mobilities are reduced significantly when isolator mobilities are large compared to those from source and receiver. Findings from theoretical studies were validated in practical settings considering structure-borne sound transmission from a ship diesel engine and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device.