Sound transmission loss prediction of the composite fuselage with different methods

Abstract

Increase of sound transmission loss(TL) of the fuselage is vital to build a comfortable cabin environment. In this paper, to find a convenient and accurate means for predicting the fuselage TL, the fuselage is modeled as a composite cylinder, and its TL is predicted with the analytical, the statistic energy analysis (SEA) and the hybrid FE&SEA method. The TL results predicted by the three methods are compared to each other and they show good agreement, but in terms of model building the SEA method is the most convenient one. Therefore, the parameters including the layup, the materials, the geometry, and the structure type are studied with the SEA method. It is observed that asymmetric laminates provide better sound insulation in general. It is further found that glass fiber laminates result in the best sound insulation as compared with graphite and aramid fiber laminates. In addition, the cylinder length has little influence on the sound insulation, while an increase of the radius considerably reduces the TL at low frequencies. Finally, by a comparison among an unstiffened laminate, a sandwich panel and a stiffened panel, the sandwich panel presents the largest TL at high frequencies and the stiffened panel demonstrates the poorest sound insulation at all frequencies. © The Author(s) 2011.