Isogeometric symmetric FE-BE coupling method for acoustic-structural interaction

The problems of Acoustic-Structural Interaction (ASI) are commonly encountered in the simulation of the thin-walled structures immersed in the fluid. This interaction can affect the acoustic properties of the fluid and the dynamic characteristics of the structure. In this paper, a Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS)-based Isogeometric Finite Element (FE) - Boundary Element (BE) symmetric coupling method is developed to study the ASI problems and the free vibration of the elastic structures submerged in the fluid. The geometry of the thin-walled structures is exactly modelled and discretized by utilizing the Isogeometric Reissner-Mindlin shell elements. This shell theory simplifies the continuity enforcement between NURBS patch boundaries. The Isogeometric Boundary Element Method (IGABEM) is applied to describe the acoustic field. In order to impose coupling constraints, a transformation equation of unknown variables on the interface between sound field and structure field is established, that is, sound pressure versus external force and particle velocity versus displacement. Different from the non-symmetric matrix obtained by the traditional direct BEM, a new variational formulation is introduced to obtain the symmetric coupling coefficient matrix, which maks this coupling approach suitable for a broad class of solvers and improves the robustness of the computation. The reliability and stability of the symmetric coupling method are verified by numerical examples considering acoustic and structural loadings. It is concluded that the symmetric coupling method possesses high accuracy, and can circumvent the limitation of traditional coupling method in solving open boundary problems.