Acoustic radiation from baffled vibrating

plates with various geometries

Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 2071, 040009 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5090076
Published Online: 30 January 2019

Dorin Bibicu, Maria (Stan) Necula, and Luminita Moraru

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AIP Conference Proceedings 2071, 040009 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5090076 2071, 040009

© 2019 Author(s).
 Acoustic Radiation from Baffled Vibrating Plates with
Various Geometries
Dorin Bibicu1, 2, a), Maria (Stan) Necula3, 4, b), Luminita Moraru3, c)
1
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Business Adminstration Department, Dunarea de Jos
University of Galati, 59-61 Nicolae Balcescu St., Romania.
2
High School Dunarea, Galati, 24 Oltului St., Romania.
3
Faculty of Sciences and Environment, Physics Department, Dunarea de Jos University of Galati, 47 Domneasca
St., 800008, Romania.
4
Technical College "Radu Negru" Galati, 119 Stiintei St, 800170 Galati, Romania.
a)
[email protected]
b)
[email protected]
c)
Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract. Today there is a high demand coming from industry, airports and highways on low noise products. The sound
radiation of rectangular vibrating plates, which are common sources of noise in practical problems, is based on
complicated analytical calculations connected to the dynamic properties of the plates. In this paper some simulations on
the radiated sound power of baffled vibrating plates with various geometries are carried out. Finite vibrating plates
having square, circular and annular shapes were analyzed in terms of displacement, particle velocity and pressure by
using a Finite Element Model with appropriate boundary conditions. Each vibrating surface was discretized into a
number of finite elements and only the contribution of elements on the boundary was considered. Also, the density of the
material and its thickness were defined. These simulations were performed in Matlab environment.

INTRODUCTION
Often, vibrations and acoustic radiation of vibrating structures are undesirable effects appearing in many
technical fields. Also, a high demand coming from industry, airports and highways on low noise products is very
actual. The acoustic radiation field generated by rectangular vibrating plates, which are common sources of noise in
practical problems, is based on complicated analytical calculations connected to the dynamic properties of the plates.
Analytical models of the radiation field from vibrating plates has been extensively studied in various boundary
conditions [1-6]. The approaches are diverse and cover the Rayleigh integral theory used to establish the radiation
efficiency for individual vibration modes [2], Maidanik’s model used to calculate the vibration near the critical
frequency for large acoustic wavenumber and plate wavenumber components [3] or determine the total radiation
efficiency by using the modal summation in the far-field approximation [4]. Putra and Thompson [6] gave an
analytical interpretation of the sound filed radiated from rectangular baffled and unbaffled plates in a comparative
approach based on various methods.
In order to understand the behavior of mechanical structures that radiate sound we should compare the theory
about the structural behavior of vibrating structures with simulation results. However, the theory of vibroacoustic
emission in air is well developed only for a finite, rectangular vibrating plate.
In this paper, the simulation results regarding the radiated sound of baffled square, circular and annular shapes
plates are compared. Also, the vibration velocity and pressure field are required for a correct analysis.

TIM 18 Physics Conference

AIP Conf. Proc. 2071, 040009-1–040009-5; https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5090076
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1799-1/$30.00

040009-1
 MODEL OF A RECTANGULAR FINITE VIBRATING PLATE
When a plate is excited by an external periodic driving force, its vibration transfers energy to the surrounding
fluid medium in a so called acoustic radiation field. We shall now analyze a rectangular plate with dimensions of Lx
and Ly. The plate has the density of the material ρp and the thickness h.
In a point defined by the coordinates x0 and y0, acts a force that excites the plate F  F ( w)e iwt where w(x,
y,ω) is the normal displacement of a point in the plate. The equation of motion of a finite baffled plate pointed
excited is [7]:

4w 4w 4w 1

D(  2  )   p h 2 w  [ F ( w) ( x  x0 ) ( y  y0 )] (1)
x 4
x y
2 2
y 4
D

where D denoted the flexural rigidity of the pate being defined as:

𝐸ℎ 3
𝐷 = 12(1−𝜗 2 ) (2)

E is Young’s modulus,  Dirac symbol or delta function and ϑ Poisson’s ration. The elementary sources are defined
by dividing the rectangular panel into a grid of cells. The displacement of the plate is defined as the sum of the
orthonormal modes driven by specified boundary conditions, given by:

F 
mn x0 , y0 mn x, y 

w( x, y, z )   
 p m1 n1  2  mn2
(3)

The first boundary condition asks for w(x,y)=0. The set of orthonormal modes Ψmn are given by:

2  mx   ny 
mn  sin  sin , m  1,..., n  1,... (4)
 
Lx Ly  Lx   Ly 

and the ωmn is the eigenfrequency correspondent to each mode (m, n) and is defined by:

 m   n  
2 2

mn   
2
     (5)
 Lx L  
   y  

1/ 4
 D 
where     represents the Skudrzyk’s constant.
  h
 p 
The velocity u(x) at any point x = (x, y) of the plate is similarly defined as the sum of the modal contributions:

 
u ( x)   umn mn ( x, y) (6)
m 1 n 1

where umn is the velocity amplitude of the mode (m, n).

The pressure of the radiated field at any point x = (x, y) is given by:

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 jk p c  
e jkr
p( x) 
2   u
S m 1 n 1
 mn ( x)
mn
r
dx (7)

here, S denotes the area of the plate and c is the speed of the sound in air.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Many mechanical or structural components in the automotive industry come mostly in circular and annular-
shapes, so it is important to analyze these vibrating systems. The circular-shape plate has the radius a and the total
area suface of πa2. The annular-shape plate has an external radius a and internal radius b [total surface π(a 2 – b2)],
with aspect ratio γ = a/b.
A Matlab code has been used to implement the computational codes to evaluate equations (3), (6) and (7), for
square-, circular- and annular-shape plates. The plates were divided into small elements of equal area. Using a
discretization process similar, the surface is divided into equal small squares, as shown in figure 1.

FIGURE 1. Discretization in equal small squares of: a. square plate; b. circular plate; c. annular plate. Square plate was divided
in M = 10000 elements, circular plate in M=7829 elements and the annular plate in M=5880 elements.

As an example, the displacement, particle velocity and pressure were calculated for the following experimental
conditions:
- material: steel with density ρp=7800 kg/m3, Young’s modulus E = 0.2 GPa and Poisson’s number ϑ=0.3
- thickness: 5 mm
- size: square plate 40 cm by 40 cm, circular plate of radius a = 20 cm and annular plate with a = 20 cm and b
= 10 cm.

To obtain a large number of modes of excitation, the location of a 10 N point excitation force is fixed at x0 = 0.1
m, y0 = 0.1 m relative to the lower left corner, for square plate. For the circular plate, x0 = 0.1 m, y0 = 0.1 m relative
to the lower left corner and for annular plate, x0 = 0.1 m, y0 = 0.1 m relative to the lower left corner. The simulated
velocity distributions at the plates’ surface are designated using the displacement distribution of the vibrating of the
system.
The results obtained from the simulation of the studied plates with the defined parameters are presented in figure
2 for comparison purpose.

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FIGURE 2. Discretization in equal small squares of: a. square plate; b. circular plate; c. annular plate. Square plate was divided
in M = 10000 elements, circular plate in M=7829 elements and the annular plate in M=5880 elements.

The results in figure 2 are in good agreement with those presented by Moreno [8] for a rectangular plate. The
surface plot of analyzed parameters indicate a decaying sinusoidal pattern into the far-field. Also, the radiation
seems to be nearly omni-directional. Clearly, differences in magnitude and distribution of normal displacement,
normal vibrational velocity and pressure are visible. We can observe the influence of the plate shape in reducing the
vibration velocity and pressure. Thus, the annular plate shows the lower amplitude for all analyze parameters. We
observe that the most unfavorable choice of the three plates is the square plate. A 3D representation of this problem
is mostly difficult to be analyzed because the measurements of each individual component (i.e. displacement,
velocity and pressure) have to be perform only in its respective direction. A 3D approach will result in a mixture of
components that cannot be further separated for a proper utilization in simulation and analysis.
In noise control engineering, beside the parameters such as frequency, materials or boundary conditions, the
results presented in this paper demonstrate that a particular geometry can be an important parameter to achieve
acceptable silent conditions.

CONCLUSIONS
Acoustic models of the radiation field of baffled vibrating plates with various geometries have been presented.
The applicability of the Finite Element Model with appropriate boundary conditions method to the analysis of the
sound radiation from vibrating plates with square, circular and annular shapes has been demonstrated.
As a future research direction, we will consider various plates material and size in order to optimize the noise
control.

REFERENCES
1. P. Gardonio and MJ. Brennan, “Mobility and impedance in structural dynamics” in Advances in Acoustics,
Noise and Vibration, edited by FJ. Fahy and J. Walker (London: Spon Press; 2004), pp. 389-447.
2. C. E. Wallace, “Radiation resistance of rectangular panel”, J. Acoust Soc Am. 51, 946-952, (1972).
3. F. Leppington, E. Broadbent, K. Heron, “The acoustic radiation efficiency of rectangular panels”, Proc Roy
Soc London 382, 245–271 (1982).

040009-4
4. G. Xie, D. J. Thompson, C. J. C. Jones, “The radiation efficiency of baffled plates and strips”, J. Sound and
Vib. 280(1), 181-209 (2005).
5. E. G. Williams and J. D. Maynard, “Numerical evaluation of the Rayleigh integral for planar radiators using
the FFT”, J. Acoust Soc Am. 72(1), 2020-2030 (1982).
6. A. Putra and D. J. Thompson, “Sound radiation from rectangular baffled and unbaffled plates”, Appl. Acoust.
71(1), 1112-1125 (2010).
7. H. G. Davies, “Acoustic radiation from fluid loaded rectangular plates”, Technical Report 71476–12, MIT,
Acoustics and Vibration Laboratory Massachusetts, 1969.
8. G. Moreno, “Spherical Nearfield Acoustical Holography”, Master's Thesis, Technical University of Denmark,
2008.

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