Decomposition in circular pistons to obtain the acoustic radiation of a rectangular piston

Obtaining pressure radiated by flat surfaces is not a new problem. This problem has studied by the complexity of the topic and its application to design flat speakers. These kind of speakers are the speakers that we use in televisions, ceilings, cinema screens, panels, etc. in this cases usually we have rectangular speakers. The single source model is the simplest model to convert the surface vibration to radiated pressure in a point. This is an easy model but it is very slow, especially when we want calculate at high frequencies. For rectangular surfaces there are models that use relatively complex auxiliary functions. In this case the calculation is accelerated but its implementation is more complicated and is necessary to particularize each situation. This paper presents the decomposition of a rectangular surface in several circular surfaces, by means of area associations, seeking a rapid method based on circular pistons whose behavior is known with an acceptable error in the allocation. (C) 2011 CIMNE (Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya). Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.