The vibrational response of a fluid-loaded baffled plate near a free surface

An analytical model to predict the vibrational response of a simply supported rectangular plate embedded in an infinite baffle with an upper free surface under heavy fluid loading and excited by a point force is presented. The equations of motion of a thin plate are solved using­­­­­­ modal decomposition technique by employing admissible functions for an in-vacuo plate and by directly solving the Helmholtz equation for acoustic waves in a fluid. The vibrational response for a flat plate in an infinite baffle and unbounded domain (semi-infinite domain) using analytical formulation available in literature is initially computed. These results are then compared against present results to observe the effect of a free surface. Predictions from analytical models are validated by comparison with results obtained by numerical models. The proposed analytical approach presents a novel formulation to describe a fluid-loaded flat plate in a waveguide and an efficient method for predicting its vibrational response.