Physical mechanisms of active control of sound transmission through rib stiffened double-panel structure

Abstract This paper presents an analytical investigation on physical mechanisms of actively controlling sound transmission through a rib stiffened double-panel structure using point source in the cavity. The combined modal expansion and vibro-acoustic coupling methods are applied to establish the theoretical model of such active structure. Under the condition of minimizing radiated power of the radiating ribbed plate, the physical mechanisms are interpreted in detail from the point of view of modal couplings similar as that used in existed literatures. Results obtained demonstrate that the rule of sound energy transmission and the physical mechanisms for the rib stiffened double-panel structure are all changed, and affected by the coupling effects of the rib when compared with the analytical results obtained for unribbed double-panel case. By taking the coupling effects of the rib into considerations, the cavity modal suppression and rearrangement mechanisms obtained in existed investigations are modified and supplemented for the ribbed plate case, which gives a clear interpretation for the physical nature involved in the active rib stiffened double-panel structure.