Mauro Caresta

Vibration of fluid loaded conical shells

An analytical model is presented to describe the vibration of a truncated conical shell with fluid loading in the low frequency range. The solution for the dynamic response of the shell is presented in the form of a power series. Fluid loading is taken into account by dividing the shell into narrow strips which are considered to be locally cylindrical. Analytical results are presented for different boundary conditions and have been compared with the computational results from a boundary element model. Limitations of the model to the low frequency range are discussed.

Active Control of Sound Radiated by a Submarine Hull in Axisymmetric Vibration Using Inertial Actuators

This paper investigates the use of inertial actuators to reduce the sound radiated by a submarine hull under excitation from the propeller. The axial forces from the propeller are tonal at the blade passing frequency. The hull is modeled as a fluid-loaded cylindrical shell with ring stiffeners and equally spaced bulkheads. The cylinder is closed at each end by circular plates and conical end caps. The forces from the propeller are transmitted to the hull by a rigid foundation connected to the propeller shaft. Inertial actuators are used as the structural control inputs. The actuators are arranged in circumferential arrays and attached to the internal end plates of the hull. Two active control techniques corresponding to active vibration control and discrete structural acoustic sensing are implemented to attenuate the structural and acoustic responses of the submarine. In the latter technique, error information on the radiated sound fields is provided by a discrete structural acoustic sensor. An acoustic transfer function is defined to estimate the far field sound pressure from a single point measurement on the hull. The inertial actuators are shown to provide control forces with a magnitude large enough to reduce the sound due to hull vibration.

Reduction of the Sound Pressure Radiated by a Submarine by Isolation of the End Caps

A passive isolation approach to reduce the sound pressure radiated by a submarine is presented. The submerged vessel is modeled as a stiffened cylindrical hull partitioned by bulkheads and with two end caps of conical shape. Fluctuating forces from the propeller are transmitted to the hull through the shaft and a rigid foundation, resulting in axisymmetric excitation of the hull. The hull surface motion is mainly in the axial direction with a small radial component due to the coupling between the two orthogonal shell displacements. The sound pressure resulting from the axial motion is radiated from the end caps of the submarine. This work investigates reduction of the far field sound pressure by passive isolation of the end caps from the main hull. Isolation of the axial motion of the end caps from the cylindrical hull results in significant reduction of the radiated sound at low frequencies. The fluid loading approximation for a finite cylindrical shell in the low frequency range is also discussed.

Active Control of Sound Radiated by a Submarine Hull in Bending Vibration Using Inertial Actuators

Submarines are efficient sources of low frequency radiated noise due to the vibrations induced by the rotation of the propeller in a non uniform wake. In this work the possibility of using inertial actuators to reduce the far field sound pressure is investigated. The submerged vessel is modelled as a cylindrical shell with two conical end caps. Complicating effects such as ring stiffeners, bulkheads and the fluid loading are taken into account. A harmonic radial force is transmitted from the propeller to the hull through the stern end cone and it is tonal at the blade passing frequency (rotational speed of the shaft multiplied by the number of blades). The actuators are attached at the inside of the prow end cone to form a circumferential array. Both Active Vibration Control (AVC) and Active Structural Acoustic Control (ASAC) are analysed and it is shown that the inertial actuators can significantly reduce the far field sound pressure.

Active control of the accordion modes of a submerged hull

This work investigates active vibration control of tonal hull axial resonances to attenuate the structural and acoustic responses of a submarine. A submerged hull can be idealised as a ring-stiffened finite cylinder with external fluid loading. At low frequencies, rotation of the propeller results in discrete tones at the blade passing frequency and its harmonics. The fluctuating forces at the propeller are transmitted through the propulsion system, resulting in excitation of the low frequency hull vibrational modes, which in turn results in a high level of structure-borne radiated noise. Global hull modes are difficult to attenuate since passive control techniques such as damping materials and isolators are not practical due to size and weight constraints. This work numerically investigates the application of active vibration control based on a feedforward algorithm to suppress the axial and radial hull displacements. The effect of various cost functions and control arrangements on the structure-borne radiated noise is presented.

Vibration of a submarine hull under harmonic propeller‐shaft excitation

cylindrical shell, with bulkheads and end caps. The stieners are introduced using a smeared approach. The bulkheads are modelled as circular plates with in plane and bending motion, and the end closures are modelled as truncated conical shells. External fluid loading is introduced to take into account the interaction of the structure with the acoustic medium. The propeller introduces a harmonic varying force in both the axial and transverse directions. The force is transmitted to the structure through the shaft that is connected to the end plate of the cylindrical hull and supported by the conical end cap. The axial component excites the axisymmetric modes of the structure. The transverse force component excites the hull through the conical shell and excites the higher circumferential modes. Since these modes are mainly flexure in nature, they can result in a high noise signature level. Results are presented in terms of FRFs calculated analytically and compare the axisymmetric vibration caused by the axial excitation and the asymmetric response due to the transverse component of the force.

Predicting the response of structures to transient shock loading

This work concerns the prediction of the response of an uncertain structure to a load of short duration. Assuming an ensemble of structures with small random variations about a nominal form, a mean impulse response can be found using only the modal density of the structure. The mean impulse response turns out to be the same as the response of an infinite structure: the response is calculated by taking into account the direct field only, without reflections. Considering the short duration of an impulsive loading, the approach is reasonable before the effect of the reverberant field becomes important. The convolution between the mean impulse response and the shock loading is solved in discrete time to calculate the response at the driving point and at remote points. Experimental and numerical examples are presented to validate the theory presented for simple structures such as beams, plates, and cylinders.

Shock dynamics of random structures

Predicting the response of a structure following an impact is of interest in situations where parts of a complex assembly may come into contact. Standard approaches are based on the knowledge of the impulse response function, requiring the knowledge of the modes and the natural frequencies of the structure. In real engineering structures the statistics of higher natural frequencies follows those of the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble, this allows the application of random point process theory to get a mean impulse response function by the knowledge of the modal density of the structure. An ensemble averaged time history for both the response and the impact force can be predicted. Once the impact characteristics are known in the time domain, a simple Fourier Transform allows the frequency range of the impact excitation to be calculated. Experimental and numerical results for beams, plates, and cylinders are presented to confirm the validity of the method.