Finite Element Prediction of Vibro-Acoustic Environments

An efficient analytical methodology has been developed with the finite element method which may be used to predict the low frequency vibro-acoustic environment within an aerospace flight vehicle. This methodology includes general purpose capabilities for solving problems involving the effects of structure/ acoustic interaction and random excitation pressure fields. Computational efficiency is enhanced by decoupling the structure from the acoustic volume, and taking advantage of reciprocity in the random vibration and vibro-acoustic formulations. The application of the analytical methodology to an example problem found good agreement with previous research, demonstrating the feasibility of the methodology described herein.