Modelling the transient interaction of a thin elastic shell with an exterior acoustic field

Abstract

Coupled finite and boundary element methods for solving transient fluid–structure interaction problems are developed. The finite element method is used to model the radiating structure, and the boundary element method (BEM) is used to determine the resulting acoustic field. The well-known stability problems of time domain BEMs are avoided by using a Burton–Miller-type integral equation. The stability, accuracy and efficiency of two alternative solution methods are compared using an exact solution for the case of a thin spherical elastic shell. The convergence properties of the preferred solution method are then investigated more thoroughly.