The onset of the flexural mode in fluid loaded elastic shells revisited, and its value in object identification in both the frequency and time domain

Abstract

The onset of the excitation of flexural resonances for fluid loaded evacuated elastic shells produces a striking event. This issue has been interpreted theoretically in 1988 by means of a partial wave decomposition which showed a very narrow-peaked subsonic wave and a broad-peaked weak wave that begins at the speed of sound of the entraining fluid and increases. The narrow peaks are identified with subsonic water-borne waves that resonate in the fluid along the surface of an elastic object, and the broad peaks correspond to the inception of flexural waves. They exist over a small interval in wave number at the point when the flexural wave begins to couple with the fluid. Here we examine the pulse solution. With increasing frequency the partial waves change phase (a 90 degree phase change) and the overlapping flexural waves transition from a partially coherent constructive signal to one that is partially destructive. This leads to an envelope or hump effect, also called mid-frequency enhancement; it is a function of shell thickness as well as material property. We demonstrate how this effect may be employed to identify a submerged elastic shell in either the pulse or frequency solution.