Review of statistical energy analysis hypotheses in vibroacoustics

This paper is a discussion of the equivalence between rain-on-the-roof excitation, diffuse field and modal energy equipartition hypotheses when using statistical energy analysis (SEA). A first example of a simply supported plate is taken to quantify whether a field is diffuse or the energy is equally distributed among modes. It is shown that the field can be diffuse in a certain region of the frequency-damping domain with a single point force but without energy equipartition. For a rain-on-the-roof excitation, the energy becomes equally distributed, and the diffuse field is enforced in all regions. A second example of two plates coupled by a light spring is discussed. It is shown that in addition to previous conclusions, the power exchanged between plates agrees with the statistical prediction of SEA if and only if the field is diffuse. The special case of energy equipartition confirms this observation.