Transient energy flow between two coupled beams

Two coupled beams were excited with an impulse at one end of the source beam, and the response monitored at the remote end of the receiver beam. The response was predicted with an exact wave solution and compared with two approximate solutions: a first wave prediction and a transient statistical energy solution. With a numerical parameter study the peak velocity, peak energy and rise time to peak energy were compared with modal overlap, used as the independent variable. The applicability of these two approximate methods was defined in terms of modal overlap. The approximate methods were found to be equally accurate for both longitudinal and flexural waves. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited