An entropy formulation for the analysis of energy flow between mechanical resonators

Several energy-based methods to approach noise and vibro-acoustic problems are actually under development. These techniques provide a chance of describing the vibro-acoustic behaviour of complex systems by the energies of a limited number of subcomponents. This process is the base of one of the most acknowledged methods in this field, i.e. the statistical energy analysis (SEA). However, SEA invokes only the first law of thermodynamics, i.e. the energy conservation principle. On the contrary, it seems that the formulation of a complete theory of energy transmission among oscillators would claim also for the second principle of thermodynamics. Such direction of investigation, via the entropy concept, is developed in this paper leading to a theoretical energy flow analysis to predict the energy exchanged among complex systems. Some classical SEA results are obtained as a special case of a more general approach. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.