FREE-VIBRATION OF A THIN SPHERICAL-SHELL CONTAINING A COMPRESSIBLE FLUID

Abstract

Free vibration of a thin spherical shell filled with a compressible fluid is investigated. The interactions at the interface between the elastic structure and the compressible fluid are taken into account. The objective of this study is to develop a hybrid numerical technique for the free vibration analysis of sound-structure interaction problems. The boundary element method is employed for modeling the acoustic disturbances in the cavity, while the finite element method is used for modeling the structural dynamics of the shell. The formulations are then combined into a coupled numerical scheme for the total pressure-displacement field. Natural frequencies and mode shapes are calculated by using the singular value decomposition algorithm. Physical insights into the resonance phenomena associated with sound-structure interactions are derived from the comparison between the results of the thin spherical shell, with and without the fluid loading effect.