Consulting

I serve as a subject matter expert for US government agencies and commercial companies, as well as an expert witness in litigation cases. Contact me for my rates. The first phone or web consultation is always free.

MODELING METHODS

I provide guidance on accurate and cost-effective ways to model vibration and sound in complex structures and systems, as well as mechanically and flow-induced forcing functions.

I am an expert in finite element analysis (FEA) for structural vibrations and sound in enclosed spaces, boundary element analysis (BEA) for exterior sound, and statistical energy analysis (SEA) and hybrid SEA-FE methods for mid- to high-frequency vibroacoustic analysis.

I also perform vibration-induced structural fatigue assessments for metals and composites and consult on nonlinear vibration phenomena, such as shock and earthquake induced vibration on large structures and buildings.

MEASUREMENTS

I evaluate measured:

vibrations (modal analysis and vibrations during operation),

sound pressures (in air or in water),

flow-induced wall pressure distributions for low and high-speed flows (including transonic).

I also provide guidance on measurement plans and instrumentation for upcoming tests, including multi-sensor signal processing analysis.

EXPERT WITNESS

I provide expert reports and testimony on acoustics and vibration issues including:

compliance with measurement standards, noise ordinances, and health requirements;

patent and intellectual property infringement disputes;

remediation planning.

Research

Some brief examples of my research interests are shown below. See my publications and resume for more details.

Structural Vibration

A flat plate mode of vibration. Here, the edge boundaries are simply supported, with two half waves spanning each plate direction.

I have performed many experimental and computational modal analyses on complex structures. The modes are the fundamental basis of forced vibration and sound analyses.

Sound Radiation

A plate mode of vibration (bottom) radiates a spatially varying sound field. I teach vibration and radiated sound theory in INCE-USA's Advanced Noise Control Engineering course.

I have also investigated many computational and experimental ways to model and measure radiated sound.

Flow Induced Noise and Vibration

Wall pressures induced by turbulent shear flow from an upstream nozzle wash over a plate. These pulsations can be strong enough to cause structural fatigue cracking and failure.

I have also investigated flow induced vibration and noise caused by turbulent boundary layers, ingested turbulence, and jets.

Noise Control

A sound wave on the left strikes a noise barrier, which vibrates and radiates a weaker sound wave to the right. You can learn more about this problem in the sound transmission loss tutorial below.

I have also designed noise control treatments like viscoelastomers for structural damping, composite sound barriers, particle impact dampers; and developed methods to optimize structural shapes and treatments for reduced vibration and sound radiation.

Here is a video recorded by International INCE (Institute for Noise Control Engineering) of my talk on Flow Induced Noise and Vibration at the 2017 Hong Kong Internoise. After some preliminaries about the 2017 Flinovia II Symposium held at Penn State in May 2017 is my attempt to summarize this field, drawing from work by symposium authors. Here is the paper that accompanies this talk. A proceedings book on FLINOVIA II has been published by Springer - see the link in the Publications section below.

I gave a plenary at the Madrid 2019 Internoise on infinite structure mobility theory - one of the most useful tools a vibroacoustician has. It wasn't recorded, but I gave the same talk to our Center for Acoustics and Vibration (CAV) at Penn State - here's the video. The accompanying paper is in the section below.

The internet is full of freely available fantastic vibroacoustic resources, if you know where to look. Here is my talk to our Center for Acoustics and Vibration (CAV) at Penn State on this topic. The accompanying paper is in the section below.

I was honored to present the Rayleigh Lecture at the ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE). I gave a tutorial on vibroacoustics based on the material in my book (see below). You can watch the lecture on the ASME site but you will need to enter your name and contact info first (you can opt out of any ASME communications though).