Study on the validity region of Energy Finite Element Analysis

The validity domain of Energy Finite Element Analysis (EFEA) is studied in this paper. The validity region and criterion of EFEA are studied theoretically from the formation of reverberant plane wave field, one of the main assumptions of EFEA. The studies are acquired by virtue of the equation of radiative energy transfer method, a similar wave method that can express the direct field and its conversion relationship with reverberant field exactly. The result shows that the SEA criterion of diffuse field derived by Le Bot can be used as a good indicator for the EFEA validity. Numerical simulations on a rectangular plate with different physical parameters are applied to validate the criterion. The validity region and the diagrams of validity of EFEA are assessed and discussed. Some noteworthy conclusions about EFEA are drawn.     

Transient energy density distribution of a rod under high-frequency excitation

Energy finite element analysis (EFEA) is an efficient way to solve high-frequency structural dynamics response problems. Up to now, EFEA has been used to deal with time-independent vibration problems. However, it is still necessary to understand the time dependent details of energy density distribution of a structure. To study the transient response of a rod under high-frequency sinusoidal excitation, the transient energy density governing equation for a rod is presented. The governing equation is solved, and the solution is verified using an analytical method. Example application to a rod is presented to illustrate the feasibility.     

ANALYSIS OF VIBRATIONS AND ENERGY FLOWS IN SANDWICH PLATES BEARING CONCENTRATED MASSES AND SPRING-LIKE INCLUSIONS IN HEAVY FLUID-LOADING CONDITIONS

Vibrations of and the energy propagation in an infinitely long fluid-loaded sandwich beam (a plate of the sandwich composition in one-dimensional cylindrical bending) bearing concentrated masses and supported by springs are described in the framework of the sixth order theory of multilayered plates coupled with the standard theory of linear acoustics. A sandwich plate is loaded by a layer of a compressible fluid which is bounded opposite to a plate side by a rigid baffle. The dispersion equation for a fluid-loaded sandwich plate is derived. The wave numbers (complex, pure real and pure imaginary) and relevant normal modes (both the travelling and the evanescent ones) are obtained. Their dependence on the parameter of a fluid's depth is studied. Then the Green matrix is constructed analytically as a linear combination of normal modes to describe the response of a plate and an acoustic medium to the point loading by a force or a moment. Continuity conditions at the loaded cross-section of a plate and in a fluid are formulated. Attention is focused at the selection of roots of the dispersion relation for the formulation of the continuity condition for a fluid at the loaded cross-section. The convergence rate of an approximate solution based on the modal composition of the Green matrix is estimated. The parametric study of the “structural” and the “fluid” energy flows in a fluid-loaded sandwich plate without inclusions is performed for various excitation conditions. Then the Green matrix method is applied to analyze the influence of a pair of identical inclusions on localization of vibrations (modal trapping) and energy flows. Conditions of localization of flexural waves at these inhomogeneities are explored.     

A basic hybrid finite element formulation for mid-frequency analysis of beams connected at an arbitrary angle

When beams are connected at an arbitrary angle and subjected to an external excitation, both longitudinal and bending waves are generated in the system. Since longitudinal wavelengths are considerably longer than bending wavelengths in the mid-frequency region, the number of bending wavelengths in the beams is considerably larger than the number of longitudinal wavelengths. In this paper, plannar beams connected at arbitrary angles are considered. The energy finite element analysis (EFEA) is employed for modelling the bending behavior of the beams and the conventional finite element analysis (FEA) is utilized for modelling the longitudinal vibration in the beams. Thus, a basic hybrid FEA formulation is presented for mid-frequency analysis of systems that contain two types of energy. The bending vibration is associated with the long members in the system and the longitudinal vibration is associated with the short members. The long members are considered to have high modal overlap and to contain several wavelengths within their dimension, and uncertainty effects are present. The short members contain a small number of wavelengths, and exhibit a low modal overlap. Due to the low modal overlap the resonant frequencies are spaced far apart in the frequency domain, therefore the short members exhibit resonant or non-resonant behavior depending on the frequency of the excitation.In this work, the bending and the longitudinal vibration within the same beam member are treated as a long and as a short member, respectively. A hybrid joint formulation is developed between long and short members. Power reflection and transmission coefficients are derived for each joint. The distribution of the energy throughout the system demonstrates a strong dependency on the power transfer coefficients. Several systems are analyzed by the hybrid FEA and by analytical solutions, and good correlation between them is observed.     

Dynamics of a rectangular plate resting on an elastic foundation and partially in contact with a quiescent fluid

In this study, a method of analysis is presented for investigating the effects of elastic foundation and fluid on the dynamic response characteristics (natural frequencies and associated mode shapes) of rectangular Kirchhoff plates. For the interaction of the Kirchhoff plate–Pasternak foundation, a mixed-type finite element formulation is employed by using the Gâteaux differential. The plate finite element adopted in this study is quadrilateral and isoparametric having four corner nodes, and at each node four degrees of freedom are present (one transverse displacement, two bending moments and one torsional moment). Therefore, a total number of 16 degrees-of-freedom are assigned to each element. A consistent mass formulation is used for the eigenvalue solution in the mixed finite element analysis. The plate structure considered is assumed clamped or simply supported along its edges and resting on a Pasternak foundation. Furthermore, the plate is fully or partially in contact with fresh water on its one side. For the calculation of the fluid–structure interaction effects (generalized fluid–structure interaction forces), a boundary element method is adopted together with the method of images in order to impose an appropriate boundary condition on the fluid's free surface. It is assumed that the fluid is ideal, i.e., inviscid, incompressible, and its motion is irrotational. It is also assumed that the plate–elastic foundation system vibrates in its in vacuo eigenmodes when it is in contact with fluid, and that each mode gives rise to a corresponding surface pressure distribution on the wetted surface of the structure. At the fluid–structure interface, continuity considerations require that the normal velocity of the fluid is equal to that of the structure. The normal velocities on the wetted surface of the structure are expressed in terms of the modal structural displacements, obtained from the finite element analysis. By using the boundary integral equation method the fluid pressure is eliminated from the problem, and the fluid–structure interaction forces are calculated in terms of the generalized hydrodynamic added mass coefficients (due to the inertial effect of fluid). To asses the influences of the elastic foundation and fluid on the dynamic behavior of the plate structure, the natural frequencies and associated mode shapes are presented. Furthermore, the influence of the submerging depth on the dynamic behavior is also investigated.     

On the analytic solution of the steady flow of a fourth grade fluid

The steady flow of a fourth grade fluid is a problem belonging to non-Newtonian fluid mechanics and deserves to be more widely studied than it has been to date. In the non-linear regime the literature is scarce. We develop a formulation suitable for solution of hydrodynamic equation containing non-linear rheological effects of fourth grade fluids. The homotopy analysis method (HAM) is used to investigate the flow of a fourth grade fluid past a porous plate. Explicit analytic solution is given. The non-linear effects on the velocity distribution is shown and discussed. Comparison of the present analysis is also made with the existing results in the literature.     

Vibration of L-shaped plates under a deterministic force or moment excitation: a case of statistical energy analysis application

Analytical and closed form solutions are presented in this paper for the vibration response of an L-shaped plate under a point force or a moment excitation. Inter-relationships between wave components of the source and the receiving plates are clearly defined. Explicit expressions are given for the quadratic quantities such as input power, energy flow and kinetic energy distributions of the L-shaped plate. Applications of statistical energy analysis (SEA) formulation in the prediction of the vibration response of finite coupled plate structures under a single deterministic forcing are examined and quantified. It is found that the SEA method can be employed to predict the frequency averaged vibration response and energy flow of coupled plate structures under a deterministic force or moment excitation when the structural system satisfies the following conditions: (1) the coupling loss factors of the coupled subsystems are known; (2) the source location is more than a quarter of the plate bending wavelength away from the source plate edges in the point force excitation case, or is more than a quarter wavelength away from the pair of source plate edges perpendicular to the moment axis in the moment excitation case due to the directional characteristic of moment excitations. SEA overestimates the response of the L-shaped plate when the source location is less than a quarter bending wavelength away from the respective plate edges owing to wave coherence effect at the plate boundary.     

Computation of the homogeneous and forced solutions of a finite length, line-driven, submerged plate

A formulation is developed to predict the vibration response of a finite length, submerged plate due to a line drive. The formulation starts by describing the fluid in terms of elliptic cylinder coordinates, which allows the fluid loading term to be expressed in terms of Mathieu functions. By moving the fluid loading term to the right-hand side of the equation, it is considered to be a force. The operator that remains on the left-hand side is the same as that of the in vacuo plate: a fourth-order, constant coefficient, ordinary differential equation. Therefore, the problem appears to be an inhomogeneous ordinary differential equation. The solution that results has the same form as that of the in vacuo plate: the sum of a forced solution, and four homogeneous solutions, each of which is multiplied by an arbitrary constant. These constants are then chosen to satisfy the structural boundary conditions on the two ends of the plate. Results for the finite plate are compared to the infinite plate in both the wave number and spatial domains. The theoretical predictions of the plate velocity response are also compared to results from finite element analysis and show reasonable agreement over a large frequency range.     

Plate with decentralised velocity feedback loops: Power absorption and kinetic energy considerations

This paper is focused on the vibration effects produced by an array of decentralised velocity feedback loops that are evenly distributed over a rectangular thin plate to minimise its flexural response. The velocity feedback loops are formed by collocated ideal velocity sensor and point force actuator pairs, which are unconditionally stable and produce ‘sky-hook’ damping on the plate. The study compares how the overall flexural vibration of the plate and the local absorption of vibration power by the feedback loops vary with the control gains. The analysis is carried out both considering a typical frequency-domain formulation based on kinetic energy and structural power physical quantities, which is normally used to study vibration and noise problems, and a time-domain formulation also based on kinetic energy and structural power, which is usually implemented to investigate control problems. The time-domain formulation shows to be much more computationally efficient and robust with reference to truncation errors. Thus it has been used to perform a parametric study to assess if, and under which conditions, the minimum of the kinetic energy and the maximum of the absorbed power cost functions match with reference to: (a) the number of feedback control loops, (b) the structural damping in the plate, (c) the mutual distance of a pair of control loops and (d) the mutual gains implemented in a pair of feedback loops.     

Vibro-acoustic behaviour of laminated double glazing enclosing a viscothermal fluid cavity

This paper presents a new numerical model to investigate the vibro-acoustic behaviour of two laminated glass plates enclosing a thin viscothermal fluid cavity. The aim of this work is to develop an original five layer (two skins plies, two adhesive films and a core ply) laminated plate finite element by mixing Kirchhoff and Mindlin plate’s theory. The formulation is based on the theory that accounts for the transverse shear in the adhesive films and in the core. The acousto-elastic model is established in dimensionless appropriate form including the effects of viscosity and thermal conductivity of fluid and by taking into account the fluid-structure interaction. The discretization of the energy functional by finite element method gives after minimisation a symmetrical coupled matrix system in which the acoustic matrices are frequency dependent. Therefore, an iterative procedure is derived to determine the eigenmodes of the coupled system. The modal approach is adopted to determine the vibro-acoustic system’s response. Then, the validation of the new laminate finite element model is achieved by comparing the sandwich plate results against data obtained from literature. Subsequently, predicted responses, such as the vibration transmissibility and the transmission loss of the coupled system, for a given laminated double glazing under an imposed homogeneous pressure are presented and discussed. Numerical results show the importance of both lamination and viscothermal fluid effects on double glazing vibro-acoustic behaviour.     

Three-dimensional elasticity model for a decoupling coating on a rectangular plate immersed in a heavy fluid.

This paper presents an analysis of the vibroacoustic response of a finite, simply supported rectangular plate covered by a layer of decoupling material and immersed in a heavy fluid. An exact formulation using the three-dimensional theory of elasticity for the decoupling material is derived for this problem, thereby extending previous studies that were limited to infinite plates. The paper details the constitutive equations of the problem and the analytical method of solution. Numerical results show that shear waves in the decoupling material generally have little influence on the sound radiation in the heavy fluid. Comparisons with a locally reacting model of the decoupling material and with the simple model of House [Proc. I.O.A. 13(3), 166-173 (1991)] are also presented.     

Elastic wave field computation in multilayered nonplanar solid structures: a mesh-free semianalytical approach

Multilayered solid structures made of isotropic, transversely isotropic, or general anisotropic materials are frequently used in aerospace, mechanical, and civil structures. Ultrasonic fields developed in such structures by finite size transducers simulating actual experiments in laboratories or in the field have not been rigorously studied. Several attempts to compute the ultrasonic field inside solid media have been made based on approximate paraxial methods like the classical ray tracing and multi-Gaussian beam models. These approximate methods have several limitations. A new semianalytical method is adopted in this article to model elastic wave field in multilayered solid structures with planar or nonplanar interfaces generated by finite size transducers. A general formulation good for both isotropic and anisotropic solids is presented in this article. A variety of conditions have been incorporated in the formulation including irregularities at the interfaces. The method presented here requires frequency domain displacement and stress Green's functions. Due to the presence of different materials in the problem geometry various elastodynamic Green's functions for different materials are used in the formulation. Expressions of displacement and stress Green's functions for isotropic and anisotropic solids as well as for the fluid media are presented. Computed results are verified by checking the stress and displacement continuity conditions across the interface of two different solids of a bimetal plate and investigating if the results for a corrugated plate with very small corrugation match with the flat plate results.     

Computation of fluid flows in non-inertial contracting, expanding, and rotating reference frames

We present the method for computation of fluid flows that are characterized by the large degree of expansion/contraction and in which the fluid velocity is dominated by the bulk component associated with the expansion/contraction and/or rotation of the flow. We consider the formulation of Euler equations of fluid dynamics in a homologously expanding/contracting and/or rotating reference frame. The frame motion is adjusted to minimize local fluid velocities. Such approach allows to accommodate very efficiently large degrees of change in the flow extent. Moreover, by excluding the contribution of the bulk flow to the total energy the method eliminates the high Mach number problem in the flows of interest. An important practical advantage of the method is that it can be easily implemented with virtually any Eulerian hydrodynamic scheme and adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) strategy.We also consider in detail equation invariance and existence of conservative formulation of equations for special classes of expanding/contracting reference frames. Special emphasis is placed on extensive numerical testing of the method for a variety of reference frame motions, which are representative of the realistic applications of the method. We study accuracy, conservativity, and convergence properties of the method both in problems which are not its optimal applications as well as in systems in which the use of this method is maximally beneficial. Such detailed investigation of the numerical solution behavior is used to define the requirements that need to be considered in devising problem-specific fluid motion feedback mechanisms.     

Validation of a medium-frequency computational method for the coupling between a plate and a water-filled cavity

The aim of this paper is the validation of a computation by a numerical method, normally adapted to the medium-frequency (MF) domain, of the strong coupling between an elastic structure (plate) and a cavity entirely filled with an internal acoustic viscous dense fluid (water). The method of computation does not lie in a modal approach (no need to extract the modal basis of the system) but it directly computes the frequency response of the system using a specific algorithm called the “Onera-MF method”.This method was developed to accurately calculate the response of complex systems in an MF broad band at a lower cost than standard modal method or direct step-by-step frequency method. The method can also be used for the low-frequency (LF) domain where modal densities of systems are low. The computation of the vibroacoustic response of the system lies in a finite element modelling of the overall system (structure and fluid) in which the coupling between the structure and the fluid (light or heavy) is directly taken into account within the formulation of the finite elements.A simple and well-known experimental case was chosen for validation: a parallelepipedic cavity entirely filled with water contained in a box defined by five rigid faces and closed at its end by an elastic clamped homogeneous plate.The validation is based on a comparison between measurement, the numerical computation and an analytical approach in the frequency band . Both the vibratory response of the plate and the acoustic pressure were compared. This study shows that the MF-method of computation used herein for this case also works in a modal domain.     

A Numerical Tackling on Sakiadis Flow with Thermal Radiation

Momentum and energy laminar boundary layers of an incompressible fluid with thermal radiation about a moving plate in a quiescent ambient fluid are investigated numerically. Also, it has been underlined that the analysis of the roles of both velocity and temperature gradient at infinity is of key relevance for our results.     

Analytical modeling and vibration analysis of internally cracked rectangular plates

This study proposes an analytical model for nonlinear vibrations in a cracked rectangular isotropic plate containing a single and two perpendicular internal cracks located at the center of the plate. The two cracks are in the form of continuous line with each parallel to one of the edges of the plate. The equation of motion for isotropic cracked plate, based on classical plate theory is modified to accommodate the effect of internal cracks using the Line Spring Model. Berger?s formulation for in-plane forces makes the model nonlinear. Galerkin?s method used with three different boundary conditions transforms the equation into time dependent modal functions. The natural frequencies of the cracked plate are calculated for various crack lengths in case of a single crack and for various crack length ratio for the two cracks. The effect of the location of the part through crack(s) along the thickness of the plate on natural frequencies is studied considering appropriate crack compliance coefficients. It is thus deduced that the natural frequencies are maximally affected when the crack(s) are internal crack(s) symmetric about the mid-plane of the plate and are minimally affected when the crack(s) are surface crack(s), for all the three boundary conditions considered. It is also shown that crack parallel to the longer side of the plate affect the vibration characteristics more as compared to crack parallel to the shorter side. Further the application of method of multiple scales gives the nonlinear amplitudes for different aspect ratios of the cracked plate. The analytical results obtained for surface crack(s) are also assessed with FEM results. The FEM formulation is carried out in ANSYS.     

Energy flow model for thin plate considering fluid loading with mean flow

Energy Flow Analysis (EFA) has been developed to predict the vibration energy density of system structures in the high frequency range. This paper develops the energy flow model for the thin plate in contact with mean flow. The pressure generated by mean flow affects energy governing equation and power reflection–transmission coefficients between plates. The fluid pressure is evaluated by using velocity potential and Bernoulli's equation, and energy governing equations are derived by considering the flexural wavenumbers of a plate, which are different along the direction of flexural wave and mean flow. The derived energy governing equation is composed of two kinds of group velocities. To verify the developed energy flow model, various numerical analyses are performed for a simple plate and a coupled plate for several excitation frequencies. The EFA results are compared with the analytical solutions, and correlations between the EFA results and the analytical solutions are verified.     

Free vibrations of laminated composite cylindrical shells with an interior rectangular plate

The free vibration analysis of a laminated composite cylindrical shell with an interior rectangular plate is performed by the analytical and experimental methods. The frequency equations of vibration of the shell including the plate are formulated by using the receptance method. To obtain the free vibration characteristics before the combination of two structures, the energy principle based on the classical plate theory and Love's thin shell theory is adopted. The numerical results are compared with the results from an experiment, as well as a finite element analysis, to validate the current formulation. The influences of the length-to-radius ratio (L_S/a) and radius-to-thickness ratio (a/h_S) of the shell and fiber orientation angles (Θ) of symmetric cross- and angle-ply composite materials on the natural frequencies of a cylindrical laminated combined shell are also discussed in details.     

Vibration analysis of a rectangular thin isotropic plate with a part-through surface crack of arbitrary orientation and position

In this paper, vibration analysis of a rectangular thin isotropic plate with a part-through surface crack of arbitrary orientation and position is performed by using the Kirchhoff plate theory. Simply supported (SSSS), clamped (CCCC) and simply supported–clamped (SCSC) boundary conditions are considered for the analysis. First, the governing differential equation of a cracked plate is formulated. A modified line spring model is then used to formulate the crack terms in the governing equation. Next, by the application of Burger's formulation, the differential equation is transformed into the well-known Duffing equation with cubic and quadratic nonlinearities. The Duffing equation is then solved by the method of multiple scales (MMS) to extract the frequency response curve. Natural frequencies are evaluated for different values of length, angle and position of a part-through surface crack. Some results are compared with the published literature. Amplitude variation with different values of length, angle and position of a part-through surface crack are presented, for all three types of the plate boundary conditions.     

Analysis of the modal energy distribution of an excited vibrating panel coupled with a heavy fluid cavity by a dual modal formulation

This paper describes the modal interaction between a panel and a heavy fluid cavity when the panel is excited by a broad band force in a given frequency band. The dual modal formulation (DMF) allows describing the fluid–structure coupling using the modes of each uncoupled subsystem. After having studied the convergence of the modal series on a test case, we estimate the modal energies and the total energy of each subsystem. An analysis of modal energy distribution is performed. It allows us to study the validity of SEA assumptions for this case. Added mass and added stiffness effects of the fluid are observed. These effects are related to the non-resonant acoustic modes below and above the frequency band of excitation. Moreover, the role of the spatial coupling of the resonant cavity modes with the non-resonant structure modes is also highlighted. As a result, the energy transmitted between the structure and the heavy fluid cavity generally cannot be deduced from the SEA relation established for a light fluid cavity.