Abstract: | Sound radiation of thin plates is a common problem in engineering. Hashimoto proposed the discrete calculation method(DCM) to deal with the problem. The calculation of the radiation impedance of the rectangular element is more cumbersome than that of the circular one, so the discrete rectangular radiation element is approximated by the circular one. However, error is also introduced. The formula developed by Sha has been employed to get self- and mutual-radiation impedances of rectangular radiation element. Numerical study was performed to verify error introduced by the approximation Hashimoto adopted. Experimental researches on sound radiation of a 2 mm-thick and a 4 mm-thick magnesium alloy plates were also carried out to evaluate the errors introduced by the approximation. The experimental results indicate that the circular approximation Hashimoto adopted overestimates the sound radiation efficiency. The maximum error levels of the radiation efficiencies of the2 mm-thick and 4 mm-thick magnesium alloy plates are up to 0.15 and 0.12, respectively. The effect of element aspect ratio on the sound radiation efficiency is also remarkable. |