Vibro-acoustics of ribbed structures: A compact modal formulation for SEA models

Rib-stiffening of plates and shells is a structurally-efficient construction technique common to aerospace, shipbuilding, automotive, and many other industries. Engineers need to be able to design the vibro-acoustic behavior of these panel systems. That is, the panel vibration response to excitation by a sound pressure field and the sound radiated by panel vibration. The effect of adding rib-stiffeners to a uniform thickness, isotropic panel is to cause scattering of the panel free bending waves. The superposition of these wavefields can also be described by modal methods, if the panel has finite dimensions. The effect of rib stiffening is shown to be the re-distribution of resonant frequencies and mode shapes of the panel, which can significantly alter its noise and vibration character. This paper describes a compact modal method for description of the vibro-acoustics of ribbed panels which is currently implemented in the Statistical Energy Analysis modeling package AutoSEA.