Advanced statistical energy analysis

A high-frequency theory (advanced statistical energy analysis (ASEA)) is developed which takes account of the mechanism of tunnelling and uses a ray theory approach to track the power flowing around a plate or a beam network and then uses statistical energy analysis (sea) to take care of any residual power. ASEA divides the energy of each sub-system into energy that is freely available for transfer to other sub-systems and energy that is fixed within the sub-system. The theory allows for coupling between sub-systems that are physically separate and can be interpreted as a series of mathematical models, the first of which is identical to standard SEA and subsequent higher order models are convergent on an accurate prediction. Using a structural assembly of six rods as an example, ASEA is shown to converge onto the exact results, whereas SEA is shown to overpredict by up to 60 dB.