Application of the Boundary Element Method to Acoustic Cavity Response and Muffler Analysis

This paper is concerned with the application of the Boundary Element Method (BEM) to interior acoustics problems governed by the reduced wave (Helmholtz) differential equation. The development of an integral equation valid at the boundary of the interior region follows a similar formulation for exterior problems, except for interior problems the Sommerfeld radiation condition is not invoked. The boundary integral equation for interior problems does not suffer from the nonuniqueness difficulty associated with the boundary integral equation formulation for exterior problems. The boundary integral equation, once obtained, is solved for a specific geometry using quadratic isoparametric surface elements. A simplification for axisymmetric cavities and boundary conditions permits the solution to be obtained using line elements on the generator of the cavity. The present formulation includes the case where a node may be placed at a position on the boundary where there is not a unique tangent plane (e.g., at an edge or a corner point). The BEM capability is demonstrated for two types of classical interior axisymmetric problems: the acoustic response of a cavity and the transmission loss of a muffler. For the cavity response comparison data are provided by an analytical solution. For the muffler problem the BEM solution is compared to data obtained by a finite element method analysis.