Split Vibration Modes in Acoustically-Coupled Disk Stacks

Vibration of an array of stacked annular plates, in which adjacent plates couple weakly through an acoustic layer, is investigated through experimental and theoretical methods. Such acoustic coupling manifests itself through split natural frequencies, beating in the time responses of adjacent or separated plates, and system-level modes in which plates in the array vibrate in- or out-of-phase at closely-spaced frequencies. Laboratory measurements, including a technique in which the frequency response function of all in-phase modes but no out-of-phase modes, or visa versa, is measured, demonstrate the contribution of coupling to the natural frequency spectrum, and identify the combinations of design parameters for which it is important. For the lower modes of primary interest here, the natural frequencies of the out-of-phase system modes decrease as the air layer becomes thinner, while those of the in-phase mode remain sensibly constant at the in vacuo values. A vibration model comprising N classical thin plates that couple through the three-dimensional acoustic fields established in the annular cavities between plates is developed, and its results are compared with measurements of the natural frequencies and mode shapes.