Sound transmission through a flexible panel into an enclosure: structural–acoustics model

In this article, a combined analytical and numerical effort is presented for modeling structural acoustics of sound transmission through a flexible panel into an enclosure. A spherical wave, which is generated by a noise source located in the near field, is transmitted into a rectangular enclosure through a flexible panel. Piezoelectric patches, which are bonded symmetrically to the top and bottom surfaces of the panel, are used as actuators. Microphone sensors are used inside and outside the enclosure for acoustic pressure measurements. The developed model accounts for panel interactions with both the external sound field and the enclosed sound field, and this feature makes it appealing for model-based active noise control schemes. For different actuator–sensor pairs, the numerically obtained frequency–response functions from the model are found to be in good agreement with the corresponding experimental observations.