Acoustic Applications

in Mechanical
Engineering:
Structure-Borne Sound
versus Air-Borne Sound
Marold Moosrainer
CADFEM GmbH
2009 July 6th
Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Agenda
§ Introduction into acoustics: common phrases, basic equation
§ Solving structural vibration problems with ANSYS
§ Solving structure-borne sound problems with ANSYS SBSOUND
§ Solving air-borne sound problems with ANSYS (FEM)
§ Solving air-borne sound problems with WAON (BEM)

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Introduction
§ machine acoustics
§ speed of sound, wavelength, frequency
§ basic concept of solving acoustic
problems by simulation

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Some phrases of machine acoustics

machine direct noise
generation:
flow
fluid, e.g. air
transient flow acoustics
(CFD + acou.)

machine indirect noise

oscillating
structure generation:
forces
vibroacoustics
(FEM + acou.)

building structure

• structure-borne sound: a sound wave propagating in a solid medium

• air-borne sound: a sound wave propagating in air
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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Speed of sound – wavelength – frequency

§ Note that we solve the acoustic wave equation to model reflection,
scattering, absorption and thus we have to resolve each wave in its
spatial pattern
§ important equation: c=λ f
§ air: c≈340m/s, f=1000Hz → λ=0.34m
§ water: c≈1500m/s, f=1000Hz → λ=1.5m

§ rule of thumb FEM, BEM: 6....10 linear elements per wavelength

§ required elements for a domain of characteristic size a:
FEM (volume mesh): ~O(N3) BEM (surface mesh): ~O(N2)
§ large acoustic FEM problem: 10M DOFs
large acoustic BEM problem: 20k DOFs
large acoustic FMBEM problem: 200k DOFs

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Basic concept of solving acoustic problems by simulation

Signal analysis
(MBS, test, FFT)

Structure--borne sound analysis

Structure
(FEM)

Air--borne sound analysis

Air
(FEM, BEM)
use N5 percentile values
for transient noise
Psycho acoustics
(e.g. DIN 45631)

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Solving Structural Vibration

Problems with ANSYS
§ modal analysis
§ harmonic response analysis
§ ANSYS application example: train
wheel

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Solving structural vibration problems with ANSYS

§ modal analysis:
§ standard procedure for the dynamic assessment of a structure
§ compute the potential vibration shapes & resonance frequencies of a
structure without considering any excitation
§ a library of specific solvers for special tasks:
§ standard: block Lanczos (LANB),

§ large problems: PCG Lanczos (LANPCG)

§ large problems, up to 10000 modes (SNODE)

§ rotordynamics: incl. gyroscopic effects (QRDAMP)

§ damped structures: incl. damping matrix (QRDAMP, DAMP)

§ break-squeal analysis: incl. friction (QRDAMP,UNSYM)

§ FSI coupled systems: incl. fluid (UNSYM)

§ however: no amplitude results

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Modal analysis: mode shapes of a train wheel

1 2 3

4 5 6

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Solving structural vibration problems with ANSYS

§ harmonic response analysis
§ now we introduce an excitation, for
instance a point force F=1N specified over
a frequency range 0…2500 Hz
§ only distinct modes will contribute to the
structural response, e.g. the modes having
a nodal line at the excitation point will not
be excited
§ use “mode superposition” instead of
inverting “full” matrices whenever possible
because of efficiency
§ usually the response amplitude at some
points is postprocessed versus frequency

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Frequency response UY(f) at contact point

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Solving Structure-Borne Sound

Problems with ANSYS SBSOUND
§ basic equation of machinery acoustics
§ ANSYS application example: train
wheel

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 Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Computation of structure-borne sound

§ Acoustics is driven by velocity v=iΩu not by structural displacement u.
§ Acoustics assumes an ideal non-viscous fluid without shear layers. Thus
only the surface normal component of the structural vibration velocity
is important.
§ Acoustics is not a local phenomenon like fatigue where we have to deal
with local notch stresses. Acoustics is a global phenomenon where the
whole structure may contribute to sound radiation.
§ thus let‘s try to get one integral quantity to describe the acoustic
fingerprint of a structure by simply averaging the normal surface
velocities
§ For all this ideas apply the basic equation of machinery acoustics (cf.
textbooks) ~
P( f ) = ρ cσ ( f ) A < v~ ( f ) > n
2

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

ANSYS macro library SBSOUND (structure-borne sound)

ü Perform normal projection of the displacement results
ü Compute surface averaged mean square velocity by integration
ü Do all computations in modal subspace for higher efficiency and
extended postprocessing capabilities (modal contribution plot, panel
contribution plot)

modal
contributions
show the
influence of
distinct modes

1 2 3
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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Alternatively: bar chart of modal contributions for fixed f

§ total result (red
bar) together with
the (blue) modal
contributions

§ the same figure is

available for
panel
contributions if
panels are
defined before
calling
SBSOUND

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 Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering
Sound radiation is not only a function of velocity amplitude!
Sound pressure p for two plates vibrating in the same spatial pattern, both
with equal velocity amplitude v0 but with different frequencies. There is,
however, a big difference in the sound radiation! Radiation efficiency σ!
at 50 Hz and at 200 Hz

note the equal pressure scale

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Solving Air-Borne Sound

Problems with ANSYS (FEM)
§ interior frequency domain acoustic
FEM: living room
§ exterior acoustics time domain FEM:
offshore hammer

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Interior acoustics: modal analysis by ANSYS FEM

§ living room with defined absorbent
linings: mode 2 at 28 Hz (right) mode
50 at 152 Hz (left)

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Exterior acoustics: transient analysis by ANSYS FEM

§ Offshore hammer: for offshore applications a steel pipe has to be fixed
in shallow sea water. The pile has a length of 30m above sea ground, a
radius of 2m, and a wall thickness of 50mm; half-sin force FY≈1E8N.
§ It’s partially immersed in water (water height 25m), where the speed of
sound c=1500m/s, and fluid density ρ=1000kg/m3, apply absorbent
boundary condition at exterior surfaces
pipe

exterior fluid

interior fluid

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Results: animated displacement u and sound pressure p

Structural result
§ pipe displacement
§ radial component
important

Acoustic result P
§ sound pressure
animation
§ sound pressure
signals at different
microphone
positions

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Solving Air-Borne Sound

Problems with WAON (BEM)
§ features of BEM and FMBEM
§ FMBEM workflow for train wheel
example
§ ANSYS Workbench → WAON interface

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Computation of air-borne sound (typical BEM workflow)

1. structural FE model

2. modal model (FEM):

eigenfrequencies, mode
shapes, modal damping

3. Harmonic frequency (FEM)

response results (structure-
borne sound): surface
displacements

4. Acoustic BEM solves wave equation, no fluid volume mesh required.

a) BEM result: sound pressure p, sound power P, radiation efficiency σ
b) field point mesh result (half sphere): sound pressure p, intensity I
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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Compare FEM & BEM

§ before talking about the new
development FMBEM let’s BEM FEM

have a more general view on

BEM

§ BEM: divide only the surface. Interior Interior

§ easy to create a mesh.

§ The sound radiation problem
can be handled completely
§ no need for any particular
boundary condition like in
FEM for exterior acoustic
problems
Exterior Exterior

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 Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Acoustics Software: &

WAON specialized acoustic software for efficient frequency domain sol.

§ technology
§ based on Fast Multipole Bounday Element Method (FMBEM), a state of the art
numerical technology
§ pro’s
§ easy to learn (2-4 hours or even a seminar by WEBEX is sufficient)
§ easy to apply even if acoustics isn’t your every day business
§ easy mesh operations – surface mesh of your radiating structure is sufficient
§ low memory requirements, high performance, high frequencies (comp. to
BEM): e.g. automotive sensor applications at ultrasonic frequencies very
efficient (park distance control, alarm)

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

What is FMBEM
§ Fast Multipole algorithm is applied to the boundary element method (BEM)
§ The world's first commercial acoustic-analysis program with using FMBEM
§ Accuracy is the same as conventional BEM

§ Conventional BEM § FMBEM

§ Calculation of interaction between all

elements § Calculation of interaction between cells
§ Memory requirement instead of between elements (maths:
§ O(N2) clustering & multipole expansion)
§ Solution time § Solution time
§ O(N3) : direct solver § O(N ～ N logN)
§ O(N2) : iterative solver § Memory requirement
§ O(N ～ N logN)

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Engine: Conventional BEM vs. FMBEM

§ Available on larger structures and higher frequency at

shorter times!
§ Radiated noise from engine
§ Pressure or output power distribution

around scooter engine.

§ 4.5 kHz analysis by 84,000

DOF mesh.
§ Required memory(4.5kHz)
§ Conventional BEM : 113 GB

§ FMBEM by WAON : 3 GB

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 Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Compare FEM & BEM

FEM acoustics
large amount of data particularly for large
distance results or scatter objects
volume meshes: prep/post efforts
developer: easy math,
user: more effort to handle
non-reflecting boundary conditions like
FLUID130, perfectly matching layer (PML)
for radiation problems
strong in both frequency & time domain
modal analysis available
non-homogeneous acoustic media
porous media (foam) available (Biot theory)
nonlinearities available (large amplitudes)
convected wave eq. for flow eff. available
BEM acoustics
reduced amount of data even for large distance
results
surface meshes: easy prep/post, less data
developer: complex math,
user: more easy to handle
radiation problem solved very naturally because
every boundary element “knows” about the
radiation cond. analytically
only strong in frequency domain
no modal analysis available
acoustic medium has to be homogeneous
volome damping idealized by complex c
confined to linear theory
quiescent acoustic medium

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

ANSYS/WAON workflow: air-borne sound

§ train wheel example
“reloaded”
§ Prepare WAON BEM
(surface) mesh in ANSYS
and export it to CDB
formatS

§ prepare WAON field point

mesh (virtual
microphones) in ANSYS
and export it to CDB
format

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 Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering
Import BEM mesh & map ANSYS structural vibration
results
WAON feature tree
(max. 7 dialogues
to work through
intuitively)

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering
Import field point mesh (virtual microphones) &
perform FMBEM harmonic response analysis (2-3 min.)

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering
Postprocess pressure amplitude & pressure level in dB
& intensity vectors on field point mesh

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Compare air-borne power to structure-borne sound power

§ blue curve: input power
(structure-borne sound
power identical to
SBSOUND result)
§ due to radiation
efficiency σ this always
is a very conservative
estimate of the radiated
active output power in
red (air-borne sound
power)
§ good agreement at
higher frequencies
above coincidence
where we have
radiation efficiency σ=1.

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Even more Easy to Use: Interface WBtoWAON

Developed by CYBERNET SYSTEMS
WBtoWAON
Developed by CYBERNET SYSTEMS
WAON

ANSYS Workbench
Developed by ANSYS, Inc.

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

WAON: some more solved acoustic applications

120

Sound P ressure Level[dB ]

110 P oint1 P oint2 P oint3
100
90
80
70
60
50
0 5 10 15 20
Frequency[kH z]

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Multiphysics: FEM/FEM/BEM application example

Investigation of the Noise electromagnetics
Behavior of an Electric Motor
struct. vibrations
§ Structure: Single phase
alternating current acoustics
electric motor

§ Task: Simulate noise

behavior for silent
operation

§ Method: Coupled
electro-mechanic,
structural-dynamic and
acoustic analysis
Schall lei stungspegel [dB]

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000

f [Hz]

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Acoustic Applications in Mechanical Engineering

Conclusion
§ ANSYS FEM for structural vibration analysis, multiphysics analysis
(e.g. electro-magnetic excitation)
§ SBSOUND (ANSYS macro library provided by CADFEM) for a quick
rough structure-borne sound assessment
§ WAON for really doing fully-fledged acoustic simulations
§ FMBEM is a very comfortable technique particularly for the new user
because there is no need for volume meshing like in acoustic FEM
§ FMBEM technique overcomes the traditional drawback of
conventional BEM: matrix storage requirements & large CPU time
due to direct solvers. High-speed iterative solvers available.
§ FMBEM by WAON allows the analysis of large scale models & high
frequencies
§ acoustics is easy – acoustics is fun!

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