Shape design sensitivity analysis for the radiated noise from the thin-body

Abstract Many industrial applications generally use thin-body structures in their design. To calculate the radiated noise from vibrated structure including thin bodies, the conventional boundary element method (BEM) using the Helmholtz integral equation is not an effective resolution. Thus, many researchers have studied to resolve the thin-body problem in various physical fields. No major study in the design sensitivity analysis (DSA) fields for thin-body acoustics, however, has been reported. A continuum-based shape DSA method is presented for the radiated noise from the thin-body. The normal derivative integral equation is employed as an analysis formulation. And, for the acoustic shape design sensitivity formulation, the equation is differentiated directly by using material derivative concept. To solve the normal derivative integral equation, the normal velocities on the surface should be calculated. In the acoustic shape sensitivity formulation, not only the normal velocities on the surface are required but also derivative coefficients of the normal velocities (structural shape design sensitivity) are also required as the input. Hence, the shape design sensitivity of structural velocities on the surface, with respect to the shape change, should be calculated. In this research, the structural shape design sensitivities are also obtained by using a continuum approach. And both a modified interpolation function and the Cauchy principle value are used to regularize the singularities generated from the acoustic shape design sensitivity formulation. A simple annular disk is considered as a numerical example to validate the accuracy and efficiency of the shape design sensitivity equations derived in this research. The commercial BEM code, SYSNOISE, is utilized to confirm the results of the developed in-house code based on a normal derivative integral equation. To validate the calculated design sensitivity results, central finite difference method (FDM) is employed. The error between FDM and the analytical result are less than 3%. This comparison demonstrates that the proposed design sensitivities of the radiated pressure are very accurate.