Face-based smoothed finite element method for simulating the sound field of a high-speed train

Simulating three-dimensional acoustic problems with traditional finite element models (FEMs) may result in a large dispersion error that is difficult to manage. To control dispersion error caused by “overly stiff” features of FEM, a face-based smoothed FEM (FS-FEM) model was used to analyze the sound field of a high-speed train. Based on the acoustic Galerkin method’s weak form, smooth regions were reconstructed within the original finite element area, and numerical simulations were performed in MATLAB. Modal analysis of a test example revealed that results obtained using FS-FEM are more accurate than those obtained using the traditional FEM. Finally, it was used to calculate the sound field of China Railway High-speed 380B (CRH380B) high-speed trains in time and frequency domains, achieving higher accuracy than the traditional approach. Results were more akin to the realistic solution, which demonstrated the performance of the FS-FEM.