Acoustics-

Structure Analysis
with Workbench
and ANSYS

Steven Hale
Senior Engineering Manager
CAE Associates, Inc.
Introduction

l This document describes a combined approach to modeling acoustics-structure

interaction problems with Workbench and ANSYS.
— Workbench can be used to perform the following tasks:
• Import and edit the geometry
• Generate a mesh
• Assign structural material properties
• Apply constraints and loads to the structure
• Generate named selection components
— The workbench model can be transferred to ANSYS for the remaining tasks which
include the following:
• Combine the lower order elements used in the air region with the higher order elements used in
the solid region.
— This is required because all acoustics elements are lower order.
• Remove the midside nodes on the faces of the structural elements at the acoustic-structure
interfaces (if higher-order elements are used in the structure).
• Create the acoustic element types and assign them to the air elements
• Assign all material properties to the acoustic elements
• Define the acoustic-structure interfaces
• Set up, solve, and post-process the harmonic analysis

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Model Inputs
l Acoustics element types:
— FLUID29 (2D)
— FLUID30 (3D)
• Keyopt(2) = 0: Pressure, UX, UY, UZ dof
• Keyopt(2) = 1: Pressure dof

l Acoustics-structure interface
— Use an acoustics element with keyopt(2) = 0
— Apply a surface load to the interface nodes with a SF,,FSI command
• Note: for improved solution efficiency, constrain the displacement dofs for all acoustics nodes on
elements with keyopt(2) = 0 that are not at an interface with a structural element. This may also
prevent zero pivot warnings.

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Model Inputs

l Material properties
— DENS: fluid density
— SONC: speed of sound in the fluid
• Equals the square root of the bulk modulus divided by the density
— MU: boundary admittance associated with the acoustic-structure interface.
• This is a dimensionless quantity between 0 and 1 that is equal to the ratio of the fluid’s
characteristic impedance to the real component of the specific acoustic impedance at the
interface.
• Mu = 0 means there is no sound absorption at the interface
• Mu = 1 means that there is complete sound absorption.
• Boundary admittance only takes effect when a IMPD surface load is also applied.

l Sound absorbing surfaces:

— SF,,IMPD,1 applied to the nodes of the absorbing surface will activate the sound
absorption capability.
— This can be applied to any mesh boundary location, not just at the acoustic-structure
interface nodes.
— Application: Complete boundary absorption (acoustic radiation)
• Set MP,MU,,1 for all acoustics elements
• Apply SF,,IMPD,1 only to the boundary nodes

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Boundary Conditions and Harmonic Analysis

l Loads:
— F,,FLOW: Point load input to the fluid (mass/time 2 units)
— Do not apply both a D constraint and a F load to the same point.

l Notes:
— Setting PRES to zero at an acoustic boundary will define a free surface.
— If no PRES or fluid loads are applied to a boundary than it behaves as a symmetry plane
with complete deflection of a pressure wave.

l Harmonic Analysis:
— Must use the FULL method (no mode superposition)
— Can use either PRES or FLOW forcing functions on the pure acoustics elements
— Can use standard structural load forcing functions on structural elements.

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Mesh Density Considerations

l Tests show that a minimum of 10 elements per wavelength are

required to accurately predict the acoustic pressure amplitude.
— Plane wave model shows an error of approximately 1.5% for 10 EPW.
— EPW = c*N/F
• EPW – elements per wavelength
• C – speed of sound in the medium
• N = number of elements per unit length (inverse of the element edge length)
• F = forcing frequency (Hz)
— N = EPW*F/c

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Model Setup
l Workbench
— Import geometry
— Create the following named selection sets
• Solid for the air
• Surfaces at all interfaces between the air and the structures
— Apply constraints and loads on the surfaces of the structural bodies.

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Model Setup

l Workbench
— Generate two all-tetrahedra meshes: One with higher order tets (midside
nodes kept) and one with lower order tets (midside nodes dropped).
— Fluid30 elements require the dropped midside nodes
• For the mesh with the higher-order tets, choose the option to use straight-
sided elements.
— This is necessary to obtain the same mesh for both the lower and higher-order
models.
• This method will work if meshes consist only of tetrahedral elements, so you
must insert a Method item under mesh to force an all-tetrahedra mesh.

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Model Setup

l Read each case separately into ANSYS

— Case 1: Lower order tet mesh – no midside nodes
• Select the component containing the air elements
— Example: cmsel,s,eair
• Select all nodes attached to these elements
— Nsle
• Write this model to a ANSYS .cdb file
— Example: Cdwrite,db,air,cdb

— Case 2: Higher order tet mesh – with midside nodes

• Delete the air elements and their attached nodes
— Example:
• Cmsel,s,eair
• Nsle
• Edel,all
• Ndel,all
• Select everything
— Allsel

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Model Setup

l Combine the lower order mesh of the air with the higher order mesh of the
structures:
— Continuing with the previous tasks:
• Import the .cdb file containing the lower-order mesh of the air
— Example: cdread,db,air,cdb
• Merge everything, primarily to merge nodes at the acoustic-structure interface
— Nummrg,all

l Perform the following tasks in ANSYS:

— Create the Fluid30 element types and assign them to the air elements
— Assign all material properties to the Fluid30 elements
— Change the element attributes of the air elements at the acoustic-structure
interface to use the elements with both pressure and displacement dof
— Execute the SF,ALL,FSI command to define the acoustic-structure interfaces
— Remove the midside nodes on the faces of the structural elements at the
acoustic-structure interfaces.

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Model Setup, Solution, and Post-Processing

— Set up a harmonic analysis with the appropriate frequency range and number
of substeps
— Apply a structural damping ratio
— Solve the analysis
— Post-process to obtain a plot of the maximum pressure amplitudes in the air.

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Model Setup, Solution, and Post-Processing

l Sample commands for performing the above tasks:

fini
/prep7
et,10,30,,1 ! Acoustic elements: no structural dof
et,11,30 ! Acoustic elements: with structural dof
mp,dens,10,1.13e-7
mp,sonc,10,18126
mp,mu,10,0.
cmsel,s,eair ! All air elements (named selection component from Workbench)
emod,all,type,10
emod,all,mat,10
cmsel,s,ntin ! Select all nodes at the air-structure interface /solu
cmsel,a,nwall ANTYPE,HARMIC
cmsel,a,nmid !*

cm,ninterface,node HROPT,FULL

esln HROUT,ON

emid,remove,both ! Remove the midside nodes at the interface dmpr,0.02

cmsel,r,eair ! Select only the air elements at the interface !*

emod,all,type,11 ! Convert them to acoustic elements with structural dof HARFRQ,2000,3000,

sf,all,fsi NSUBST,10,

allsel KBC,1

! solve

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