Thermo-acoustic analysis of higher-order shear deformable laminated composite sandwich flat panel

Abstract

The acoustic radiation responses of laminated sandwich baffled flat panels subjected to harmonic loading in an elevated thermal environment are investigated via a novel coupled finite and boundary elements formulation based on the higher-order shear deformation shell theory. The structural stiffness and mass tensors are obtained using competent finite element steps engaging the Hamilton’s principle followed by computation of acoustic responses by resolving the Helmholtz partial differential equation. An in-house MATLAB code is developed based on the present formulation for the computation of all the desired responses. The accuracy and robustness of the present scheme are recognized by the close conformance of the critical buckling temperature, natural frequencies and the sound power level values with the available benchmark solutions alongside the values obtained via a simulation model implemented using commercially available finite element (ANSYS) and boundary element (LMS Virtual.Lab) packages. Subsequently, the present model is employed to solve wide variety of numerical illustrations and the useful inferences related to the influence of elevated temperature, core-to-face thickness ratio, core-to face modular ratio and lay-up scheme on the sound emission characteristics of sandwich composite flat panels are deliberated in detail.