Application of Acoustical Wave Propagator for the Determination of Impact Force on a Thin Elastic Plate

Determination of an impact force in an elastic structure becomes an inverse problem when the force cannot be measured directly. In this paper, the acoustic wave propagator (AWP) method is, for the first time, extended to solve inhomogeneous wave equations, and provide a computationally efficient scheme for this inverse problem. As the boundary conditions and variation of the mechanical property in the wave transmission path can be readily accommodated in the AWP method, this approach offers a solution of the force determination for mare practical situation.