Vibroacoustic Behaviour of a Fluid-Filled Baffled Cylindrical Shell Submerged in a Shallow-Water Waveguide

Abstract An analytical method for predicting the forced vibroacoustic response of a fluid-filled baffled cylindrical shell submerged in a shallow-water waveguide is presented. The structural equations are governed by a thin shell theory that is decomposed into circumferential modes with a Fourier series and axial modes using a beam function. Heavy fluid fills the exterior and interior domains of the shell. The exterior fluid domain is further constrained by acoustic boundaries of an upper free surface and lower rigid bottom, which together form an ideal shallow-water waveguide. The acoustic boundaries are enforced by employing the image source method and Graf’s addition theorem which reconciles the differing coordinate systems of the many image sources that appear in the analytical expressions for the fluid–structure coupling. Vibroacoustic characteristics due to a mechanical point excitation on the surface of the shell or acoustic excitation from an internal monopole source and influence of different waveguide depths are investigated.