Vibro-acoustic design sensitivity analysis using the wave-based method

Conventional element-based methods, such as the finite element method (FEM) and boundary element method (BEM), require mesh refinements at higher frequencies in order to converge. Therefore, their applications are limited to low frequencies. Compared to element-based methods, the wave-based method (WBM) adopts exact solutions of the governing differential equation instead of simple polynomials to describe the dynamic response variables within the subdomains. As such, the WBM does not require a finer division of subdomains as the frequency increases in order to exhibit high computational efficiency. In this paper, the design sensitivity formulation of a semi-coupled structural-acoustic problem is implemented using the WBM. Here, the results of structural harmonic analyses are imported as the boundary conditions for the acoustic domain, which consists of multiple wave-based subdomains. The cross-sectional area of each beam element is considered as a sizing design variable. Then, the adjoint variable method (AVM) is used to efficiently compute the sensitivity. The adjoint variable is obtained from structural reanalysis using an adjoint load composed of the system matrix and an evaluation of the wave functions of each boundary. The proposed sensitivity formulation is subsequently applied to a two-dimensional (2D) vehicle model. Finally, the sensitivity results are compared to the finite difference sensitivity results, which show good agreement. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.