Measurement of mechanical input power with an application to wall structures

This paper describes a simple method for measuring mechanical input power to a structure by direct analogue multiplication and integration of force and velocity signals. The influence of phase errors is controlled through measurement of both the real and the imaginary power components. The method is applied to some measurements on partition walls and agreement is obtained between input power and dissipated power computed from velocity and loss factor measurement on the wall surfaces.It is argued that the method is also applicable for a steady state measurement of the loss factor and, furthermore, that the power conversion efficiency, ζ, the ratio between the radiated sound power and input power, is a most relevant factor for characterising the radiation properties of mechanically excited partition walls.