Nonlinear sound and structure interaction in a fluid–filled flexible waveguide

Abstract

In this study, a 2-D infinite flexible waveguide is considered. The waveguide carries a weakly nonlinear acoustic fluid. It is bounded on one side by a weakly nonlinear flexible membrane and the other side is rigid. The infinite waveguide is driven at the origin by a piston oscillating at a single frequency. However, we focus only on the positive side of the piston. As the coupled waves propagate in the membrane and the fluid, the modal interactions lead to resonances and beats which form the main focus of this work. A regular perturbation method is used to derive the linear and the quasilinear order equations which are then solved. At the linear order, the primary wavenumbers are solved for and the modes are found to be non-orthogonal because of the flexible membrane. Only the propagating waves are included in the analysis. Both self-mode and cross-mode interactions of the planar and the non-planar modes are considered. The novelty of this work lies in obtaining conditions and the closed form solutions for the resonances and beats along the spatial coordinate. It is found that the self-mode interactions lead to beats only. And in the self-mode interactions, the coupled planar mode plays an important role. On the other hand, the cross-mode interactions can lead to either resonances or beats.