Underwater sound-absorbing performance of composite structure under hydrostatic pressure by considering constitutive models

Abstract

Underwater vessels face significant challenges as the high hydrostatic pressure of deep water affects their stealth performance. Linear models may not accurately depict the deformation of structures under hydrostatic pressure due to its non-linear properties of rubber and therefore, influence the results. This study utilized uniaxial tension and compression test data of styrene-butadiene rubber to fit four constitutive models and the optimal was selected to calculate the sound-absorbing performance under hydrostatic pressures,. Results showed that the Yeoh model fitted by uniaxial compression with r2 of 0.9928. Viscous losing, waveform conversion and locally resonance are main sound-absorbing mechanisms. The maximum sound-absorbing coefficient of structure at 0 MPa is 0.8914 at 7.6 kHz and the sound-absorbing performance mostly decreases with increasing hydrostatic pressure, Maximum reduction of 32 % was achieved at 3.2 kHz. Experiments verified the accuracy of simulation results, and the mean relative errors between the simulated results and the experimental results are 15.28 % (0 MPa), 16.91(0.5 MPa) %, 16.67 % (1 MPa) and 16.38 % (2 MPa), respectively. These findings can provide guidance for development of underwater sound-absorbing structures in hydrostatic pressure conditions.