Testing and model correlation of a plexiplate with a water boundary condition

The purpose of this work is to analytically and experimentally study the effects of structure-fluid coupling with the intent of understanding the structural effects of coupling and to gain experience with the options, assumptions, and capability of commercially available vibro-acoustic predictive tools. The test object is a plexiplate that has well understood, linear modal characteristics. The plexiplate was coupled to two fluid media representing the extreme options: (1) air(vacuum), which in this case represents a weakly coupled condition and (2) water interfacing one large surface of the plate, representing a strongly coupled interface. Experimental modal analysis was used to estimate the mode shapes and natural frequencies for each condition. A finite element model was formulated for each of these conditions and solutions were obtained using a commercially available solver.