Natural mode analysis of an acoustic cavity with multiple elliptical boundaries by using the collocation multipole method

This paper presents a semi-analytical approach to solve the eigenproblem of an acoustic cavity with multiple elliptical boundaries. To satisfy the Helmholtz equation in the elliptical coordinate system, the multipole expansion for the acoustic pressure is formulated in terms of angular and radial Mathieu functions. The boundary conditions are satisfied by uniformly collocating points on the boundaries. The acoustic pressure at each point is directly calculated in each elliptical coordinate system. In different coordinate systems, the normal derivative of the acoustic pressure is calculated by using the appropriate directional derivative, an alternative to the addition theorem. By truncating the multipole expansion, a finite linear algebraic system is derived. The direct searching approach is employed to determine the natural frequencies by using the singular value decomposition (SVD). Numerical results are widely discussed for several examples including an elliptical cavity, a confocal elliptical annulus cavity and an elliptical cavity with two elliptical cylinders. The accuracy and numerical convergence of the presented method is validated by comparison with available results from the analytical method and the commercial finite-element code ABAQUS. No spurious eigensolutions are found in the proposed formulation. Excellent accuracy and fast rate of convergence are the key features of the present method thanks to its semi-analytical feature.