An assessment of the effects of in-plane vibrations on the energy flow between coupled plates

Abstract

The majority of the studies of energy transmission in plate-type structures are based on the assumption that the main component of the energy transfer is due to flexural waves, and the contribution of in-plane waves may be neglected. In this study a systematic assessment of the effects and importance of in-plane vibrations has been made by using the dynamic stiffness technique which yields ''exact'' results for a certain class of structures. The method is also used as a ''bench-mark'' to assess the predictions of the statistical energy analysis (S.E.A.) approach and the wave intensity analysis (W.I.A.) approach. It is shown that the exclusion of in-plane modes may lead to sizeable errors in energy predictions unless the structure is very simple. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited