Acoustic analysis of impact sound on vibrating circular membranes

A finite element method (FEM) - boundary element method (BEM) model is developed to compute the sound generated by of a force acting on a circular membrane (drumhead). A vibro-acoustic analysis that combines modal FEM analysis, a FEM steady state dynamic analysis (SSD), considering harmonic loading and boundary element acoustics, is performed. The drumhead vibrates due to the force impact and the sound is emitted in the air. The vibration of structural response is initially computed, and the obtained results are set to be the boundary conditions of the acoustic analysis in the vibro-acoustic simulation. The radiated sound can be computed at any point of the solution domain. Various materials used by drumhead manufacturers are tested and a parametric analysis focusing on the mesh density of the models is presented. The impact sound and the acoustical characteristics of the simulated test cases are evaluated. The Rayleigh method is also applied to the acoustic simulations and is further compared to the BEM simulation results. The outcomes of this study may be further used as reverse engineering inputs, to machine learning models for the estimation of the physical and mechanical parameters of drumheads from audio signals.