FEM-Based Modeling of Guided Acoustic Waves on Free and Fluid-Loaded Plates

Title data

Landskron, Johannes ; Backer, Alexander ; Wolf, Conrad R. ; Fischerauer, Gerhard ; Drese, Klaus Stefan:
FEM-Based Modeling of Guided Acoustic Waves on Free and Fluid-Loaded Plates.
In: Applied Sciences. Vol. 15 (2025) Issue 16 . - 9116.
ISSN 2076-3417
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/app15169116

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Abstract in another language

Nowadays, guided acoustic waves (GAW) are used for many sensor and actuator applications. The use of numerical methods can facilitate the development and optimization process enormously. In this work, a universally applicable finite element method (FEM) based model is introduced to determine the dispersion relations for guided acoustic waves. A 2-dimensional unit cell model with Floquet periodicity is used to calculate the corresponding band structure diagrams. Starting from a free plate the model is expanded to encompass single-sided fluid loading. Followed by a straightforward algorithm for post-processing the data is presented. Additionally, a parametric optimizer was used to adapt the simulations to experimental data measured by a laser Doppler vibrometer on an aluminum plate. Finally, the accuracy of the FEM model is compared to two reference models, achieving good consistency. In case of the fluid-loaded model, the behavior of critical interactions between the dispersion curves and model-based artifacts is discussed. This approach can be used to model 2D structures like phononic crystals, which cannot be simulated by common GAW models. Moreover, this method can be used as input for advanced multiphysics simulations, including acoustic streaming applications.