[Truncated abstract] Shipbuilding is fast becoming a priority industry in Australia. With increasing demands to build fast vessels of lighter weight, shipbuilders are more concerned with noise and vibration problems in ships than ever. The objective of this thesis is to study the vibration response of coupled structures, in the hope that the study may shed some light in understanding the general features of ship vibration. An important feature characterizing the vibration in complex structures is the input mobility, as it describes the capacity of structures in accepting vibration energy from sources. The input mobilities of finite ribbed plate and plate/plate coupled structures are investigated analytically and experimentally in this study. It is shown that the input mobility of a finite ribbed plate is bounded by the input mobilities of the uncoupled plate and beam(s) that form the ribbed plate and is dependent upon the distance between the source location and the stiffened beam(s). Off-neutral axis loading on the beam (point force applied on the beam but away from the beam’s neutral axis) affects the input power, kinetic energy distribution in the component plates of the ribbed plate and energy flow into the plates from the beam under direct excitation ... solutions were then used to examine the validity of statistical energy analysis (SEA) in the prediction of vibration response of an L-shaped plate due to deterministic force excitations. It was found that SEA can be utilized to predict the frequency averaged vibration response and energy flow of L-shaped plates under deterministic force (moment) excitations providing that the source location is more than a quarter of wavelength away from the plate edges. Furthermore, a simple experimental method was developed in this study to evaluate the frequency dependent stiffness and damping of rubber mounts by impact test. Finally, analytical methods developed in this study were applied in the prediction of vibration response of a ship structure. It was found that input mobilities of ship hull structures due to machinery excitations are governed by the stiffness of the supporting structure to which the engine is mounted. Their frequency averaged values can be estimated from those of the mounting structure of finite or infinite extents. It was also shown that wave propagation in ship hull structures at low frequencies could be attenuated by irregularities imposed to the periodic locations of the ship frames. The vibration at higher frequencies could be controlled by modifications of the supporting structure.

Active Structural Acoustic Control (ASAC) is a subcategory of the more widely known field of Active Noise control (ANC). ASAC is different from traditional ANC methods because it seeks to attenuate noise by altering the noise producing structure instead of altering the acoustic waves traveling through the air. The greatest challenge currently facing ASAC researchers is that a suitable parameter has not yet been discovered which can be easily implemented as the minimization quantity in the control algorithms. Many parameters have been tried but none effectively attenuate the sound radiation in a way that can be easily implemented. A new parameter was recently developed which showed great potential for use as a minimization quantity. This parameter has been termed the "weighted sum of spatial gradients" (WSSG) and was shown by previous researchers to significantly reduce noise emissions from a vibrating simply supported plate in computer simulations. The computer simulations indicate that WSSG-based control provides as good or better control than volume velocity and does so with a single point measurement which is relatively insensitive to placement location. This thesis presents the experimental validation of the WSSG computer simulations. This validation consists of four major components. First, additional research was needed in to extend the use of WSSG from computer simulations to experimental setups. Second, the WSSG-based control method was performed on simply supported plates to validate the computer simulations. Third, the WSSG-based control method on was used on clamped plates to validate the computer simulations, and fourth, the WSSG-based control method was validated on plates with ribs. The important results are discussed and conclusions summarized for each of these sections. Recommendations are made for future work on the WSSG parameter.

A control metric, the weighted sum of spatial gradients (WSSG), has been developed for use in active structural acoustic control (ASAC). Previous development of WSSG [1] showed that it was an effective control metric on simply supported plates, while being simpler to measure than other control metrics, such as volume velocity. The purpose of the current work is to demonstrate that the previous research can be generalized to plates with a wider variety of boundary conditions and on less ideal plates. Two classes of plates have been considered: clamped flat plates, and ribbed plates. On clamped flat plates an analytical model has been developed for use in WSSG that assumes the mode shapes are the product of clamped-clamped beam mode shapes. The boundary condition specific weights for use in WSSG have been derived from this formulation and provide a relatively uniform measurement field, as in the case of the simply supported plate. Using this control metric, control of radiated sound power has been simulated. The results show that WSSG provides comparable control to volume velocity on the clamped plate. Results also show, through random placement of the sensors on the plate, that similar control can be achieved regardless of sensor location. This demonstrates that WSSG is an effective control metric on a variety of boundary conditions. Ribbed plates were considered because of their wide use in aircraft and ships. In this case, a finite-element model of the plate has been used to obtain the displacement field on the plate under a variety of boundary conditions. Due to the discretized model involved, a numerical, as opposed to analytical, formulation for WSSG has been developed. Simulations using this model show that ASAC can be performed effectively on ribbed plates. In particular WSSG was found to perform comparable to or better than volume velocity on all boundary conditions examined. The sensor insensitivity property was found to hold within each section (divided by the ribs) of the plate, a slightly modified form of the flat plate insensitivity property where the plates have been shown to be relatively insensitive to sensor location over the entire surface of the plate. Improved control at natural frequencies can be achieved by applying a second control force. This confirms that ASAC is a viable option for the control of radiated sound power on non-ideal physical systems similar to ribbed plates.