Elastic response of an acoustic coating on a rib-stiffened plate

This paper develops a three-dimensional analytical model of a fluid-loaded acoustic coating affixed to a rib-stiffened plate. The system is loaded by a plane wave that is harmonic both spatially and temporally. The model begins with Navier–Cauchy equations of motion for an elastic solid, which produces displacement fields that have unknown wave propagation coefficients. These are inserted into stress equations at the boundaries of the plate and the acoustic coating. These stress fields are coupled to the fluid field and the rib stiffeners with force balances. Manipulation of these equations develops an infinite number of indexed equations that are truncated and incorporated into a global matrix equation. This global matrix equation can be solved to determine the wave propagation coefficients. This produces analytical solutions to the systems’ displacements, stresses, and scattered pressure field. This model, unlike previously developed analytical models, has elastic behavior and thus incorporates higher order wave motion that makes it accurate at higher wavenumbers and frequencies. An example problem is investigated for three specific model results: (1) the dynamic response, (2) a sonar array embedded in the acoustic coating, and (3) the scattered pressure field. An expression for the high frequency limitation of the model is derived. It is shown that the ribs can have a significant impact on the structural acoustic response of the system.