Impact noise radiated by collision of two spheres: Comparison between numerical simulations, experiments and analytical results

Impact is very common source of noise in the industries. The impacts can be visible, such as forging, and can be invisible, such as impacts due to clearance of hinges. As a result of this generality, the control of impact noise needs more attention. Reduction of this tiresome noise needs enough perception about the impact. A study of this noise sources presents difficult problems both theoretically and experimentally. This is partly due to the many complex interconnected mechanical phenomena that occur and partly due to the fact that usual steady-state techniques of analysis cannot be applied. In such complex problems numerical techniques can help to acousticians. To gain some insight into this source of sound, in this paper collision of two steel spheres are studied with finite element method (FEM). Then the FEM results were compared with experiments to show authority of this numerical method to simulate impact noises. FEM results show that if the vibrational modes are excited by impact, the vibrational modes can be as effective as rigid body motion.