Study on sound transmission characteristics of a cylindrical shell using analytical and experimental models

A circular cylindrical cavity enclosed by a thin elastic shell is found in many practical devices such as expansion volume mufflers, hermetic compressors and aircraft cabins. Analytical and experimental studies are conducted in this work to understand the characteristics of sound transmission through the cylindrical wall of such a system. Using an infinitely long circular cylindrical shell subjected to a plane incident wave, an exact solution is obtained by solving the classical shell vibration equations and the acoustic wave equations simultaneously. Transmission losses obtained from the solution are compared to the transmission losses that are measured for a cylindrical shell of finite length and the same cross-sectional dimensions. The comparison suggests that the theoretical model can be used as an effective design tool despite considerable simplifications involved.