Sound radiation from an impact‐excited clamped circular plate in an infinite baffle

Sound radiation from most mechanical systems results from impact forces of various kinds. In this paper, transient sound radiation from impact‐excited circular plates is studied both analytically and experimentally. First, the contact force developed during the inelastic collision of a ball with a flexible plate was obtained. The plate vibrations were then obtained using normal mode analysis. The sound radiation waveforms in the time domain were obtained by numerical integration of the Rayleigh integral. Both analytical and experimental results show the radiation of a sound pulse during the contact which is a result of the forced deformation of the plate. Quantitative relationships are given for the plate vibration response and acoustic radiation.