Acoustic fluid-elastic structure interactions: Basic concepts

Abstract This introductory paper defines major stages in the evolution of approaches to the vibrations of elastic shells and plates in an acoustic fluid and to the resulting sound field. Concepts are described in roughly chronological order: emerging from a “prehistory” of asymptotic interaction solutions based, respectively, on the Laplace and plane-wave approximation, analyses of structures compatible with rigorous normal mode solutions when radiation loaded; solutions in terms of wavenumber transforms whose asymptotic evaluation permits the explicit formulation of the farfield: substitution of the actual structure by an infinite, analytically tractable structure displaying a similar supersonic wavenumber spectrum, though the subsonic portions of the wavenumber spectra differ.