An experimental validation of vibro-acoustic prediction by the use of simplified methods

Predicting the vibro-acoustic behaviour of a structure is usually done by using the well established finite element (FE) method and boundary element method. This paper presents a vibro-acoustic prediction case performed on a metal box using less accurate but simplified methods: sub-structuring for the calculation of the dynamic response of the structure, and a monopole distribution for the radiated noise calculation. Both are less accurate but faster methods than previous ones. An experimental validation was performed. It led to the conclusion that these methods give precise results and are sufficient for the pre-design of structures in the low frequency domain. However, this conclusion must be moderated by the fact that in spite of the simplicity of the structure, the FE model had to be adjusted to the experiments to yield to a result close to the experiments.