An approximation for the point mobility at the intersection of two perpendicular plates

The problem of point excitation at a T-intersection of two perpendicular plates is studied in order to establish expressions for the point mobility. It is found that the theory for point excitation of the free surface of a semi-infinite elastic solid is applicable in the frequency range associated with structure-borne sound transmission. From this theory the mobility for an infinite system is derived. Based on this model and on an experimental investigation an estimation procedure for the point mobility in the finite dimension case is developed. The agreement with measurements performed in situ is quite acceptable. Both the theoretical and the experimental investigations reveal that the real part of this mobility is small, although it is larger in the experimental results. This indicates that other components of excitation are difficult to eliminate and may contribute to the power input in practice. Because of the small real part of the mobility it is advantageous with respect to the reduction of structure-borne sound power transmission to locate the contact points between a source and the receiver at such intersections. Corrections are deduced for the measured magnitude of the mobility for the case when separate force and motion transducers are used.