This work is centered on low-frequency and high-frequency multiphysics problems of piezoelectric structures submerged in a quiescent fluid domain for the applications of vibration energy harvesting, biomimetic actuation, and contactless acoustic energy transfer. In the first part of this research, Macro-Fiber Composite (MFC)-based piezoelectric structures are employed for underwater mechanical base excitation and electrical biomimetic actuation in bending mode at low frequencies (the fundamental underwater bending resonance being in the infrasonic frequency range). The MFC technology (fiber-based piezoelectric composites with interdigitated electrodes) exploits the effective 33-mode of piezoelectricity, and strikes a balance between structural deformation and force levels for actuation to use in underwater locomotion, in addition to offering high power density for energy harvesting to enable battery-less aquatic sensors. Following in-air electroelastic composite model development, the fundamental research problem is to establish semi-analytical models that can predict the underwater dynamics of thin MFC cantilevers for different length-to-width aspect ratios. In-air analytical electroelastic dynamics of MFCs is therefore coupled with added mass and nonlinear hydrodynamic damping effects of fluid to describe the underwater electrohydroelastic dynamics in harvesting and actuation. To this end, passive plates of different aspect ratios are tested to extract and explore the repeatability of the inertia and drag coefficients in Morison’s equation. The focus is placed on the first two bending modes in this semi-empirical approach. In particular, electrode segmentation is studied for performance enhancement in the second bending mode. Additionally, nonlinear dependence of the output power density to aspect ratio is characterized theoretically and experimentally in the underwater base excitation problem. In the second part of this work, Ultrasonic Acoustic Energy Transfer via piezoelectric transduction is investigated theoretically and experimentally. Contactless energy transfer using acoustic excitation offers larger distances of power transmission as compared to well-studied inductive method. Various transmitter configurations (e.g. spherical, cylindrical, and focused) are explored for energy transfer to a piezoelectric receiver bar (operating in the longitudinal/thickness mode) that is shunted to a generalized resistive-reactive circuit. Fixed-free and free-free mechanical boundary conditions of the receiver are explored in detail. The resulting multiphysics analytical model framework is compared with finite-element simulations and experiments conducted in fluid (water and oil). Optimal piezoelectric receiver material and electrical loading conditions are sought for performance and bandwidth enhancement.

Local active noise control systems generate a zone of quiet at the physical error sensor location. While significant attenuation is achieved at the error sensor, local noise control is not without its problems, chiefly that the zone of quiet is generally small and impractically sized. It may be inconvenient to place the error sensor at the desired location of attenuation, such as near an observer’s ear, preventing the small zone of quiet from being centered there. To overcome the problems encountered in local active noise control, virtual acoustic sensors have been developed to shift the zone of quiet away from the physical sensor position to a spatially fixed desired location. The general aim of the research presented in this thesis is to improve and extend the spatially fixed and moving virtual sensing algorithms developed for active noise control thus far and hence increase the scope and application of local active noise control systems. To achieve this research aim, a number of novel spatially fixed and moving virtual sensing algorithms are presented for local active noise control. In this thesis, a spatially fixed virtual sensing technique named the Stochastically Optimal Tonal Diffuse Field (SOTDF) virtual sensing method is developed specifically for use in pure tone diffuse sound fields. The SOTDF virtual sensing method is a fixed gain virtual sensing method that does not require a preliminary identification stage nor models of the complex transfer functions between the error sensors and the sources. SOTDF virtual microphones and virtual energy density sensors that use both pressure and pressure gradient sensors are developed using the SOTDF virtual sensing method. The performance of these SOTDF virtual sensors is investigated in numerical simulations and using experimental measurements made in a reverberation chamber. SOTDF virtual sensors are shown to accurately estimate the pressure and pressure gradient at a virtual location and to effectively shift the zone of quiet away from the physical sensors to the virtual location. In numerically simulated and post-processed experimental control, both virtual microphones and virtual energy density sensors achieve higher attenuation at the virtual location than conventional control strategies employing their physical counterpart. As it is likely that the desired location of attenuation is not spatially fixed, a number of moving virtual sensing algorithms are also developed in this thesis. These moving virtual sensing algorithms generate a virtual microphone that tracks the desired location of attenuation as it moves through a three-dimensional sound field. To determine the level of attenuation that can be expected at the ear of a seated observer in practice, the performance of the moving virtual sensing algorithms in generating a moving zone of quiet at the single ear of a rotating artificial head is investigated in real-time experiments conducted in a modally dense three dimensional cavity. Results of real-time experiments demonstrate that moving virtual sensors provide improved attenuation at the moving virtual location compared to either fixed virtual sensors or fixed physical sensors. As an acoustic energy density cost function spatially extends the zone of quiet generated at the sensor location, a fixed three-dimensional virtual acoustic energy density sensing method is also developed for use in a modally dense three-dimensional sound field. The size of the localised zone of quiet achieved by minimising either the acoustic energy density or the squared pressure at the virtual location with the active noise control system is compared in real-time experiments conduced in a modally dense three-dimensional cavity. Experimental results demonstrate that minimising the virtual acoustic energy density provides improved attenuation in the sound field and a larger 10 dB zone of quiet at the virtual location than virtual microphones. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1522526 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Mechanical Engineering, 2010

In this research an attempt is made at explaining the physical processes behind energy dissipation during wave breaking, through spectral analysis of the resulting sound. The size of an air bubble can be directly linked to the frequency of the sound that is heard using the simple harmonic solution to the Rayleigh–Plesset equation. It indicates the inverse relationship between frequency and bubble size. And this relationship has been used to identify wave breaking in general [MANASSEH 2006]. Now this research goes a step farther and looks at how the frequency spectrum of the sound changes with time, in an effort to understand the general pattern and from that to deduce an empirical equation that describes the breaking down of turbulence during a wave breaking event. Two main processes have been identified, with the second process having three main indicators that are necessary to evidence wave breaking. The first process is a near instantaneous shattering of the initial air bubble into much smaller metastable bubbles of a size that appears to be common for all waves independent of wave height. Then in the second process, the bubbles continue to break down following a recognisable pattern. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Driven by the need to reduce the sound transmitted into aircraft cabins from the power plant, this thesis investigates the active control of sound transmitted through a structure into coupled enclosures. In particular, it examines alternatives to conventional microphone and accelerometer error sensors. This study establishes a design framework for the development and analysis of an active noise control system which can be applied to any complex vibro-acoustic system. The design approach has focused on using techniques presently used in industry to enable the transfer of the active noise control technology from the research stage into practical noise control systems. The structural and acoustic sub-systems are modelled using FEA to estimate the in vacuo structural modal response of the structure and the acoustic pressure modal response (with rigid boundary conditions) of the interior cavity. The acoustic and structural systems are then coupled using modal coupling theory. Within this framework, two novel error sensors aimed at overcoming observability problems suffered by traditional microphone and accelerometer sensors are investigated: namely, acoustic energy density sensors and shaped radiation modal vibration sensors. The principles of the measurement of energy density are discussed and the errors arising from its measurement using two and three-microphone sensor configurations are considered for a one-dimensional reactive sound field and a plane wave sound field. The error analysis encompasses finite separation effects, instrumentation errors (phase and sensitivity mismatches, and physical length errors), diffraction and interference effects, and other sources of error (mean flow and turbulence, temperature and humidity, statistical effects). Following the one-dimensional study, four 3-axis energy density sensor designs are proposed and error analysis is conducted over the same acoustic fields as for the one-dimensional study. The design and construction of the simplest arrangement of the 4 three-axis sensors is discussed with reference to design issues, performance and limitations. The strategy of using energy density control is investigated numerically for a purely acoustic system and a coupled panel-cavity system. Energy density control is shown to provide greater local and global control compared to that possible using an equivalent number of microphones. The performance of the control system is shown to be relatively insensitive to the placement of the energy density sensor. For an enclosed cavity system with high modal overlap, the zone of local control achieved by minimising energy density is found to be approximately the same as the zone of local control obtained when min-imising pressure and pressure gradient in a diffuse sound field. It is also shown that if there is only one control source used per energy density sensor, global control will be almost optimum. The addition of further control sources leads to an improvement in global control, however, the control is no longer optimal. The control system is found to be very tolerant of errors in the estimate of the energy density and thus the use of simpler energy density sensor designs is justified. Finally, an experiment is presented in which the global performance achieved by controlling a three-axis energy density sensor is compared with the performance achieved by minimising the acoustic potential energy and minimising the sum of squared pressures at a finite number of microphones. The experimental results are found to reflect the numerical results. The active minimisation of harmonic sound transmission into an arbitrarily shaped enclosure using error signals derived from structural vibration sensors is investigated numerically and experimentally. It is shown that by considering the dynamics of the coupled system, it is possible to derive a set of "e;structural radiation"e; modes which are orthogonal with respect to the global potential energy of the coupled acoustic space and which can be sensed by structural vibration sensors. Minimisation of the amplitudes of the "e;radiation modes"e; is thus guaranteed to minimise the interior acoustic potential energy. The coupled vibro-acoustic system under investigation is modelled using Finite Element Analysis which allows systems with complex geometries to be investigated rather than limiting the analysis to simple, analytically tractable systems. Issues regarding the practical implementation of sensing the orthonormal sets of structural radiation modes are discussed. Specific examples relating to the minimisation of the total acoustic potential energy within a curved rectangular panel and a coupled cavity are given, comparing the performance offered using vibration sensing of the radiation modes on the structure with the more traditional error sensing; namely, the discrete sensing of the structural kinetic energy on the structural boundary and the acoustic potential energy in the enclosed space approximated by the mean squared pressures at several locations. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mechanical Engineering, 1999.

During the past 60 years fluid-structure interaction in a wide range of three dimensional circular cylinder problems have been studied. Initial problems considered a rigid wall structure which were solved using impedance model comparisons. Soon after, further solution techniques were used, such as computer simulation, transfer matrix methods and finite element techniques. However such problems were only valid for low frequencies when compared with experiments, this was because that did not include higher order modes. The importance of higher order modes was then established and studies have since included these modes. More recently, mode matching methods have been used to find the amplitudes of waves in structures comprising two or more ducts. This has been done with using an orthogonality relation to find integrals which occur from the application this method. This methodology is demonstrated in as background information and is applied to prototype problems formed of rigid ducts. The rigid duct theory led to the consideration of elastic shells, of which several shell modelling equations were available from the vibration theory. In this thesis, the Donnell-Mustari equations of motion are used to model thin, elastic, fluid-loaded shells of circular cross-section. It is demonstrated that generalised orthogonality relations exist for such shells. Two such relations are found: one for shells subject to axisymmetric motion and one for shells subject to non-axisymmetric motion. These generalised orthogonality relations are new to the field of acoustics and are specific to shells modelled with the Donnell-Mustari equations of motion. The mode matching method is used to find the amplitudes of waves propagating in prototype problems and the generalised orthogonality relations are used to find integrals which occur through this method. Expressions for energy for all considered structure types are used to find the resulting energy for each prototype problem and results for equivalent problems are compared. In addition, verification of the resulting amplitudes is done by ensuring that the matching conditions are suitably satisfied. It is anticipated that the method will have application to the understanding and control of the vibration of cylindrical casings such as those enclosing turbo-machinery. Another application of the method would be the tuning of cylindrical casings, such as those featured on car exhaust systems or HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems.

The properties of acoustic kinetic energy density and total energy density of sound fields in lightly damped enclosures have been explored thoroughly in the literature. Their increased spatial uniformity makes them more favorable measurement quantities for various applications than acoustic potential energy density (or squared pressure), which is most often used. In this dissertation, a new acoustic energy quantity, the generalized acoustic energy density (GED), will be introduced. It is defined by introducing weighting factors, α and 1 − α, in the formulation of total acoustic energy density. With the additional degree of freedom, the GED can conform to the traditional acoustic energy density quantities, or be optimized for different applications. The properties and applications of the GED are explored in this dissertation. For enclosed sound fields, it was found that GED with α = 1/4 is spatially more uniform than the acoustic potential energy density, acoustic kinetic energy density, and the total acoustic energy density, which makes it a more favorable measurement quantity than those traditional acoustic energy density quantities for many indoor measurement applications. For some other applications, such as active noise control in diffuse field, different values of α may be considered superior. The numerical verifications in this research are mainly based on a hybrid modal expansion developed for this work, which combines the free field Green's function and a modal expansion. The enclosed sound field is separated into the direct field and reverberant field, which have been treated together in traditional modal analysis. Studies on a point source in rectangular enclosures show that the hybrid modal expansion converges notably faster than the traditional modal expansions, especially in the region near the source, and introduces much smaller errors with a limited number of modes. The hybrid modal expansion can be easily applied to complex sound sources if the free field responses of the sources are known. Damped boundaries are also considered in this dissertation, and a set of modified modal functions is introduced, which is shown to be suitable for many damped boundary conditions.

Cette thèse propose une modélisation du bruit d'origine aérodynamique, avec une attention particulière aux mécanismes de transfert d'énergie entre l'écoulement et le milieu de propagation. Une première partie aborde le problème de la création et du transport de l'énergie acoustique en milieu aérodynamique. Trois grands courants de pensée sont identifiés : l'approche eulérienne linéarise les équations valables en cas de fluide parfait pour former une loi de conservation ; l'approche dissipative développe les équations de Navier-Stokes, fait intervenir les fluctuations de vorticité comment moteur du mouvement acoustique ou décompose la quantité de mouvement en une théorie potentielle ; l'approche lagrangienne décrit le déplacement lagrangien de la perturbation qui suit le passage de l'onde acoustique. La première est la plus naturelle. La deuxième est la plus complète et la seule à expliquer la création d'énergie par l'aérodynamique. Une théorie générale voyant l'acoustique comme le seul champ généralisé qui se trouve piégé par l'aérodynamique en découle. La dernière est la plus prometteuse pour l'avenir. Dans une deuxième partie, les moyens permettant le calcul du champ acoustique à partir d'une sollicitation surfacique sont présentés. Il s'agit de la méthode d'extrapolation des ondes de Kirchhoff basée sur la pression, la formulation de Ffowcs-Williams & Hawkings basée sur les débits, et l'intégrale de Rayleigh basée sur une vitesse vibratoire. Une troisième partie de la thèse utilise les formalismes d'excitation surfacique pour étudier la réaction du milieu acoustique à des excitations génériques sous formes de paquets d'onde, représentatives de l'aérodynamique instationnaire. La réponse acoustique est caractérisée par la direction d'émission privilégiée du rayonnement et son efficacité, défini comme le taux de transfert d'énergie entre l'excitation et son milieu. On montre notamment que l'introduction d'une dissymétrie amont-aval dans l'excitation augmente fortement son efficacité, de même que la prise en compte d'un milieu de propagation en mouvement uniforme. Dans une dernière partie, ces considérations sont étendues au rayonnement d'une couche de mélange et adaptées en se basant sur l'analogie de Liepmann. Cette approche peu répandue est une intégrale de Rayleigh dont l'excitation est la dérivée temporelle de l'épaisseur de déplacement. Les résultats sont comparés avec la base de données d'une simulation acoustique directe et des deux autres méthodes surfaciques. La directivité n'est pas retrouvée par la modélisation proposée. On montre que la prédiction des niveaux nécessite de modéliser une impédance de rayonnement. / This study proposes a model for the noise generated aerodynamically, while focusing on energy transfer mechanisms between the main flow and the propagating medium. Energy harvest in aerodynamic condition is therefore the subject of a first part. Three general trends may be identified ; the eulerian approach uses linearized Euler's equations for inviscid flows in a form of a conservation law ; the dissipating approach expands Navier-Stokes equations in series, relies on vorticity fluctuations to excite the medium or splits velocity or momentum vectors in a general potential theory ; the lagrangian approach describes the lagrangian displacement of the perturbation inherent to an acoustic wave. The first approach is the most commonly adopted. The second one is the most complete and provides aerodynamical mechanisms for energy generation. A general fashion follows where acoustics is a generalized field, trapped by a hydrodynamic impedance. The last one may be subject of close attention for future considerations. In a second part, computational models are presented with their ability to predict acoustic radiation from a surface excitation. These are the Kirchhoff formalism based on the pressure, the Ffowcs Williams & Hawkings formalism based on the mass flow rate and the Rayleigh integral based on the vibration velocity. These are applied in a third part of the study to investigate the response of the acoustic medium to a generique excitation in the form of a wavepacket, representative of unsteady aerodynamics. Such acoustic response is caracterised by its direction of maximum radiation and its efficiency, defined as the rate of energy transfer between the excitation and its surrounding medium. Introducing an upstream-downstream asymmetry in the excitation is showed to significantly enhance its efficiency, as well as a convection velocity in the propagating medium. Within these general considerations, the last part of this study models acoustic excitation in a mixing layer flow based on Liepmann's analogy. This relatively unexplored theory consists in a Rayleigh integral excited by the temporal derivative of the displacement thickness. Results are compared with direct noise computation database and two other methods of surface excitation. Directivity is likely to be found while pressure amplitude is correctly predicted by using a model for radiation impedance.

A theoretical investigation of acoustic wave interactions with turbulent premixed flames was performed. Such interactions affect the characteristic unsteadiness of combustion processes, e.g., combustion instabilities. The small perturbation method (SPM) was utilized to evaluate the scattered fields as a result of the flame-wave interaction at the instantaneous wrinkling surface of a randomly moving turbulent flame. Stochastic analysis of ensemble-averaged net acoustic energy was conducted to examine coherent and incoherent acoustic energy amplification /damping by the interaction. Net acoustic energy flux out of the flame is due to two factors: the acoustic velocity jump due to unsteady heat release from flame. The other is the flames unsteady motion. Five(5) dimensionless parameters that govern this net acoustic energy were determined: rms height and correlation length of flame front, incident wave frequency, the ratio of flames diffusion time to flame fronts correlation time, and incidence angle. The dependence of net acoustic energy upon these dimensionless parameters was illustrated and discussed by numerical simulations in case of Gaussian statistics of flame front. The laminar flame response to equivalence ratio perturbations was also examined, showing that the overall heat release response is controlled by the superposition of three disturbances: heat of reaction, flame speed, and flame area. Heat of reaction disturbances dominate the flame response at low Strouhal numbers, roughly defined as (frequency x flame length)/(axial flow velocity). All three disturbances play equal roles at Strouhal numbers of O(1). In addition, the mean equivalence ratio exerts little effect upon this transfer function at low Strouhal numbers. At O(1) Strouhal numbers, the flame response increases with decreasing values of the mean equivalence ratio.

Measurements in a reverberation chamber use spatially averaged squared pressure to calculate sound absorption, sound power, and other sound measurements. While a reverberation chamber provides an approximation of a diffuse sound field, variations in the measurements introduce uncertainty in measurement results. Room qualification procedures require a sufficient number of source-receiver locations to obtain suitable measurements. The total acoustic energy density provides greater spatial uniformity than squared pressure, which requires fewer source-receiver positions to produce similar or better accuracy in measurement results. This paper explores the possibility of using energy density in place of squared pressure, using methods outlined in current ISO standards, by describing several experimental and analytical results.

Technological advances require novel solutions for contactless energy transfer. Many engineering applications require unique approaches to power electrical components without using physical wires. In the past decade, awareness of the need to wirelessly power electrical components spawned many forays into the field of wireless power transfer (WPT). WPT techniques include capacitive energy transfer, electromagnetic inductive power transfer, electromagnetic radiative power transfer, electrostatic induction, and acoustic energy transfer. Acoustic energy transfer (AET) has many advantages over other methods. These advantages include lower operating frequency, shorter wavelengths enabling the use of smaller sized receiver and transmitter, extended transmitter-to-receiver distance therefore more manageable design constraints, achieving lower attenuation, higher penetration depth, and no electromagnetic losses. Most AET systems operate in the ultrasonic frequency range and are more commonly referred to as ultrasonic acoustic energy transfer (UAET) systems. Through-wall UAET systems are constructed of a transmitter bonded to a transmission elastic layer, which in turn is bonded to a receiver. The transmitter and receiver layers are constructed of a piezoelectric material. Piezoelectric materials behave according to the piezoelectric effect, which is when a material generates an electric charge in response to mechanical strain. The transmitter utilizes the reverse of the piezoelectric effect. A sinusoidal input voltage is applied to the transmitter, inducing vibrations in the transmitter. The vibration-induced acoustic waves emanating from the transmitter travel through the initial bonding layer, the transmission layer, and the final bonding layer to the receiver. In turn, the acoustic waves cause the receiver to deform and undergo strain. This induces a flow of charge in the receiver, which is an electric current. The receiver feeds current to a resistive load. In this manner, energy is acoustically transferred between two transducers without wires. The performance of UAET systems can be evaluated based on power transfer efficiency, voltage magnification, and input admittance. UAET systems require extensive modeling before experimental assembly can be attempted. The analytical models of UAET are either based on the mechanics of the constitutive relations of piezoelectricity and solid mechanics or using equivalent circuit methods. The equivalent circuit method approximates the physics of the UAET system with electrical assumptions. The mechanics-based method is the most comprehensive description of the physics of all the intermediate layers in a UAET system. The mechanics-based method has been based on the assumption that the UAET system is operated in the thickness mode of vibration, i.e., piston-like vibration mode where the transmitter and receiver disks vibrate only in the thickness direction. This poses an issue for disks with aspect ratios between 0.1 and 20 because the piezoelectric transducers vibrate in both the radial and thickness modes. In addition to this assumption, most of the works on UAET models only have accounted for the piezoelectric and transmission layers. The effects of the bonding layers were not considered. Bonding the piezoelectric layers to the transmission layer introduces epoxy material with mechanical properties that are not accounted for. The epoxy layers are extra barriers to the transmission that introduce attenuation and alter the vibrational and acoustical behaviors of the UAET system. Investigations into UAET commonly focus on metal through-wall applications. Alternate transmission layer materials are not investigated and the impact of varying mechanical properties on the performance of a through-wall UAET system has not been comprehensively studied. Even with the metal transmission layers, the impact of the metal thickness has not been extensively investigated thoroughly. This work addresses the issues of the thickness-mode assumption in UAET modeling, the effects of epoxy layers, the impacts of the metal layer geometry, and the performance of UAET systems with alternate transmission layer materials. Particularly, (1) we showed that the thickness-mode assumption, that has been used in the UAET modeling leads to inaccurate results. (2) We modified the available acoustic electro- elastic theoretical modeling to include the effects of radial modes as well as the epoxy bonding layers. (3) We showed that the geometry of the elastic/metal layer requires optimization for peak system efficiency. (4) The results show that using alternate transmission layer materials impacts the performance of UAET systems. The results of this work were investigated using an improved 5-layer analytical model and finite element modeling in COMSOL Multiphysics. / Master of Science / Wireless power transfer (WPT) is an innovative solution to the problem of powering sophisticated technological applications. Such instances include the powering of implanted medical devices, recharging inaccessible sensor networks, and wireless powering of components in sealed containers. Acoustic energy transfer (AET) is a feasible WPT method that addresses these needs. AET is based on the propagation of acoustic waves to a piezoelectric receiver which converts the vibrations caused by incident acoustic waves into electrical energy. Most AET systems operate in the ultrasonic frequency range, and so AET can also be referred to as ultrasonic acoustic energy transfer (UAET). Through-wall UAET systems are constructed from a transmitter that is bonded to a transmission elastic layer. The transmission layer is bonded to a receiver. The transmitter and receiver are made of a piezoelectric material. This thesis addresses the modeling process of through-wall UAET systems. In previous works, the fundamental assumption has been that such systems vibrate purely in the thickness mode. Additionally, other investigations did not comprehensively analyze the effects of the bonding layers, ascertain the performance of non-metal transmission layers, or provide practical insight on the effect of the resistive loading on such systems. This work addresses all these issues with a mathematical framework and finite element modeling results.