Transfer matrix modeling of the vibroacoustic response of multi-materials structures under mechanical excitation

In several automotive and aircraft applications there is a need for simple tools to assess quickly and accurately the performance of sound packages. Statistical energy analysis (SEA) and the transfer matrix method (TMM) are examples of such methods. The used methodology (for modeling sound packages) is well validated for acoustic excitations (airborne). However, a simple and reliable methodology is still lacking for mechanical excitations (structure-borne). This work concentrates on the latter. It presents and compares three different simple approaches to model the vibration and acoustic response of a mechanically excited structure with an added noise control treatment. Various examples are presented to confirm their relevance and accuracy in comparison to more exact and costly methods, such as the finite element method. In particular, it is shown that the TMM with a size correction (FTMM) is accurate enough to eliminate the classical assumption of low coupling classically assumed in SEA modeling of sound packages and/or compute efficiently the structure-borne insertion loss of sound packages used in SEA and FEM models. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.