This proposal requests funds to permit Dr. Andrew F. Seybert, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Kentucky, and Dr. Benjamin Soenarko, Engineering Physics Department, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia, to pursue, for a period of 24 months, cooperative research on boundary element methods (BEM) in acoustics (also known as integral equation methods). The PI's will utilize BEM to formulate and solve several types of multi-domain and thin-body problems in acoustics. For the multi-domain problem, the acoustic domain of interest is interior to a closed surface of arbitrary shape, exterior to a closed body, or coupled to another domain. For the thin-body problem, the acoustic domain is exterior to a body whose smallest dimension is of the same order or less than some numerical parameter such as element length. By using BEM, three dimensional problems are solved on the two dimensional boundary of the domain, thus, simplifying computations. The collaborators also will attempt to determine how to utilize special matrix techniques to increase the computational speed of the BEM. The development of methods for the solution of multi-domain and thin-body acoustic problems will be beneficial to a wide range of specific engineering problems. These include the prediction of sound pressure and power radiated by industrial products such as engines, pumps, and compressors when partially shrouded by an enclosure for noise control; design of quiet interiors of vehicles and aircraft; understanding how multiple sources may be used in active vibration/active noise control; and the design and optimization of complex networks of acoustic passageways such as those that occur in the interior of mufflers, induction systems of engines, and silencers for fans. The researchers are highly respected engineers who have successfully collaborated in the past. Dr. Soenarko is a skilled experimentalist who has worked closely with the aircraft industry and understands the practical nature of the research. Dr. Seybert's team will have the benefit of Dr. Soenarko's experience in experimental methods and validation. This project adds an international cooperative dimension to ongoing research under NSF Grant No. MSM-8810909. This project is relevant to the objectives of the Science in Developing Countries Program which seeks to increase the level of cooperation between U.S. scientists and engineers and their counterparts in developing countries through the exchange of scientific information, ideas, skills, and techniques and through collaboration on problems of mutual benefit.
