Model approximation for sound transmission from underwater structures in high-frequency range

Abstract

Sound-insulation model provides a straightforward way to describe sound transmission behaviours of the thin-walled structures in engineering applications. The sound transmission characteristics depend on the parameters of incident wave, such as incident wave amplitude and incident angles. However, this model is limited when the sound source is located in an enclosed space (e.g., noise source in underwater cabins), because it is difficult to obtain incident angles especially in the high-frequency range. In this paper, we develop a simply analytical model that can effectively study the sound transmission from an enclosed shell with internal acoustic excitation. In order to extend the application of the sound-insulation model to a submerged shell, the structural vibration equation is firstly simplified to the plate vibration equation. Then, the sound pressure near the inner surface of the shell is decomposed into an expansion of orthogonal cavity eigenmodes, and each cavity mode is replaced by two pairs of incident plane waves. Finally, the acoustic transmission loss can be obtained by substituting the parameters of incident waves into the sound-insulation model. Numerical results show that the sound transmission for the fundamental cavity mode (0, 0, 0) can be explained by the normal incidence in the sound-insulation model, while every other modes corresponds to a group of oblique incident plane waves whose incident angles decrease monotonically with the increase of frequency. In addition, it can be observed that the total reflection phenomenon in the sound-insulation model is consistent with the low radiation efficiency of the high order modes in the shell model.