An Analytical Solution for the Vibration and Far-Field Sound Radiation Analysis of Finite, Semisubmerged Cylindrical Shells

Abstract

The vibration response and far-field sound radiation of a semisubmerged, finite cylindrical shell with low-frequency excitation are studied. The solution to this problem can be divided into two steps. The first step is to apply the wave propagation approach to determine the vibration response of the cylindrical shell. In the cylindrical coordinate system, the Flügge shell equations and Laplace equation are used to describe the cylindrical shell and surrounding fluid so that the vibration responses of the shell can be addressed analytically. The fluid free surface effect is taken into account by applying the sine series to force the velocity potential on the free surface to be zero. Furthermore, compared with the FEM (the finite element method), the present method is not only reliable but also effective. In the second step, the far-field sound radiation is solved by the Fourier transform technique and the stationary phase method in accordance with the vibration responses of the shell from the previous step. The boundary element method is applied to validate the reliability of the acoustical radiation calculation. The circumferential directivity of far-field sound pressure is discussed, and it is found that the maximum value of the sound pressure always appears directly under the structure when the driving frequencies are relatively low. Besides, in consideration of simplicity and less computation effort, the present method can be used for the rapid prediction of the vibration and far-field sound pressure of a semisubmerged cylindrical shell with low-frequency excitation.