Topology optimization of damping material layout in coupled vibro-acoustic system using hybrid finite element-wave based method

A topology optimization method for coupled vibro-acoustic problem based on hybrid finite element-wave based method is proposed. The hybrid finite element-wave based method is used to model the coupled free layer damping structure-acoustics system, and a gradient-based topology optimization formulation is developed by solid isotropic microstructures with penalization method, to obtain optimized layout of free layer damping with the objective of minimizing sound pressure in the acoustic cavity and with constraint defined as the amount of free layer damping. The adjoint variable method for the coupled vibro-acoustic model based on the hybrid finite element-wave based method is also derived as a part of the sensitivity analysis. Numerical example shows that the optimized distribution reduce sound pressure effectively and the calculation time of proposed method is less than the conventional method for topology optimization base on finite element method. Experimental results verify the accuracy of the hybrid finite element-wave based method and the effect of optimized damping material layout is also validated by experiment.