Estimation of the acoustic field of a vibrating cylindrical shell considering an unknown acoustic disturbance

Many studies have been conducted on methods to predict the acoustic radiation characteristics produced by the structural vibration, but the effects of external acoustic disturbances on the structure have typically not been taken into consideration. To solve the problem of previous studies, methods are proposed in this article to improve acoustic field estimation performance by considering both the acoustic field affected by structural vibration and the one affected by unknown acoustic disturbances. First, a method is proposed for estimating the structureborne acoustic field based on signals from vibration sensors attached to the structure. In addition, the positions and the frequency characteristics of unknown disturbance sources are investigated based on the difference between the acoustic signals measured at some receiving points and the acoustic field estimation results, using the genetic algorithm and the least square method. Finally, the acoustic field of the structure is estimated by considering both unknown disturbance sources and structural vibration. The proposed theory is validated through a numerical analysis performed using a commercial software program.