A study of power flow in a coupled plate–cylindrical shell system

A substructure approach is formulated to investigate the power flow characteristics of a plate–cylindrical shell system subject to both conservative and dissipative coupling conditions. The system is divided into a shell substructure and a plate substructure. The theoretical receptance function of each substructure with a free–free interface condition is formulated by modal analysis to describe the dynamical behaviour of each substructure. The displacement components induced by external forces and the interface coupling forces are deduced, permitting determination of the coupling forces and power flow through the interface between the two substructures. On the basis of the dynamic information of the two substructures and through a synthesis analysis using the geometrical compatibility and force balance conditions on the coupling interfaces, the dynamic characteristics of power flow excited and transmitted within the system are calculated. A power flow density vector and the corresponding energy flow line are defined for this coupled system. The numerical example demonstrates the applicability of the proposed method and illustrates the power flow characteristics associated with the complex coupled plate–cylindrical shell system.