On the Use of Transfer Approaches to Predict the Vibroacoustic Response of Poroelastic Media

The transfer matrix method (TMM) is a famous analytic method in the vibroacoustic community. It is classically considered as a high frequency approach, because of the hypothesis of acoustic plane waves impinging on a flat infinite panel. Thus, it cannot take into account directly finite-size effects or lateral boundary conditions (BCs), and it needs specific algorithms to correct its results in the low frequency range. Within the transfer matrix framework, the use of finite elements makes it possible to generalize the range of applications of transfer approaches. Thus, the study of wave propagation in poroelastic media, in presence of lateral BCs can be carried out. The links between theses waves and the acoustic response of a sample are investigated. Finally, it shows that transfer approaches are not limited in the low frequency range, as usually stated. In fact, the validity of analytic transfer approaches depends more on the material and on the geometry than on the frequency range.