The forced radiation efficiency of finite size flat panels that are excited by incident sound

The radiation efficiency of an infinite flat panel that radiates a plane wave into a half space is equal to the inverse of the cosine of the angle between the direction of propagation of the plane wave and the normal to the panel. The fact that this radiation efficiency tends to infinity as the angle tends to 90 degrees causes problems with simple theories of sound insulation. Sato calculated numerical values of radiation efficiency for,a finite size rectangular panel in an infinite baffle whose motion is forced by sound incident at an angle to the normal from the other side. This paper presents a simple two dimensional analytic strip theory, which agrees reasonably well with Sato's numerical calculations for a rectangular panel. This leads to the conclusion that it is mainly the length of the panel in the direction of radiation, rather than its width that is important in determining its radiation efficiency. A low frequency correction is added to the analytic strip theory. The theory is analytically integrated over all angles of incidence, with the appropriate weighting function, to obtain the diffuse sound field forced radiation efficiency of a panel. (C) 2009 Acoustical Society of America. [DOI: 10.1121/1.3158820]