Radiation damping effect on the sound pressure response in a structural-acoustic cavity

Abstract

A structural-acoustic system consisting of an enclosed cavity with flexible wall panels is considered to evaluate the effect of sound radiation-damping resulting from the panel vibration on the sound pressure level in the cavity. The interior cavity pressure can excite the flexible wall panels that will radiate noise to the exterior that in turn can reduce the interior noise due to the energy loss to the exterior surroundings. This energy loss is described as radiation damping of the interior cavity system. An enclosed rectangular cavity-plate system subjected to external random pressure excitation is used to evaluate the effect. The radiation damping is evaluated using a modal approach (FEM, BEM) to determine the radiation efficiency of the vibrating panels. The effect of the radiation damping for the example of a box-plate structure is evaluated using the CMA (classical modal analysis) method for the low-frequency range and the AMA (asymptotic modal analysis) method for the mid- and high-frequency ranges. The inclusion of radiation damping due to rigid body cavity mode excitation is shown to provide an improved prediction of the sound transmission loss especially in the low-frequency range.