The matched asymptotic expansion (MAE) technique applied to acoustic radiation from vibrating surfaces

Abstract

The MAE technique has been used in the field of fluid mechanics for many years. Only recently this technique has been applied to acoustic problems, where it has been found to be an excellent and powerful tool in analyzing either scattering and diffraction or radiation from moving rigid objects (propellers). The purpose of this paper is to very briefly review the MAE technique as applied to low frequency acoustics in general, and then apply the resulting approach to a series of progressively more difficult problems which are of interest to many underwater acousticians. The analysis is first applied to two problems with single degrees of freedom for structural vibrations: (1) a sphere, both velocity and force driven, and (2) a circular piston in infinite rigid baffle. These are classical problems and the solutions as obtained by the MAE technique are then compared to the exact classical solutions. The MAE solutions are then generalized to a more difficult problem, with two degrees of freedom for the surface vibration, where two concentric pistons in an infinite rigid baffle are vibrating and coupled via the fluid. For each of the problems analyzed, the structural wavelength a is assumed to be small compared to the fluid wavelength (i.e., ka ⪡ 1). The inner region close to the vibrating structure, in which the fluid motion is effectively incompressible in nature, is governed by the Laplace equation while the outer solution is governed by the Helmholtz equation. The inner and outer solutions are obtained independently and are then joined together by the MAE matching procedure. A composite solution is then obtained from a combination of the inner and the outer solutions. Agreements with the exact theory for the radiated pressure, surface resistance and reactance are shown to be excellent.