Patent Document ID: 20080114496
Application ID: 11600519
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method of analyzing the vibro-acoustic optimization potential of a structure of vibro-acoustically coupled subsystems having internal and coupling loss factors, by means of a statistical energy analysis (SEA) of a selected subsystem and its sensitivity to changes in the internal and coupling loss factors, wherein the subsystem energies E in a selected frequency band with center frequency ω m are given by ω m L·E=P, with P being the input powers to the subsystems and L being the SEA matrix of internal and coupling loss factors η ij , comprising the steps of: a) calculating the gradient of energy of said selected subsystem with respect to each of the internal and coupling loss factors on the basis of a simplified SEA matrix in which all coupling loss factors η ji with j>i have been substituted by the respective η ij according to the relation η ij n i =η ji n j , with n i and n j being the modal densities of the subsystems i, j involved; b) identifying the internal loss factors causing the M highest gradients, M being a given integer, as dominant internal loss factors for the vibro-acoustic optimization of the structure, and c) identifying the coupling loss factors causing the N highest products, which each consist of a gradient times its coupling loss factor, N being a given integer, as dominant coupling loss factors for the vibro-acoustic optimization of the structure.