Hybrid finite element—wave-based method for steady-state interior structural–acoustic problems

This paper describes a hybrid finite element–wave-based method for the analysis of the steady-state dynamic response of 2D interior structural–acoustic systems. The motivation for this hybrid approach is to benefit from the advantageous features of both methods, which are the geometrical flexibility of the finite element method and the computational efficiency of the wave-based method. The accuracy of the hybrid method is verified for two example problems. The results show an improved computational efficiency compared to the finite element method in the sense that the same accuracy is obtained with smaller hybrid models. These examples illustrate that the hybrid FE–WB method has the potential to cover the mid-frequency range, where it is still difficult to obtain satisfactory results with reasonable computational costs.