An interval perturbation method for exterior acoustic field prediction with uncertain-but-bounded parameters

This paper proposes two interval analysis methods, called the first-order interval parameter perturbation method (FIPPM) and the modified interval parameter perturbation method (MIPPM), for use in exterior acoustic field prediction when there are uncertainties in both the material properties and the external load. Interval variables are used to quantitatively describe the uncertain parameters in the face of limited information. The conventional first-order Taylor expansion and perturbation terms are employed in the FIPPM, while the MIPPM introduces modified Taylor series to approximate the non-linear interval matrix and vector. The high-order terms of the Neumann expansion are retained to calculate the interval matrix inverse. A numerical example is given by comparing the results with a Monte Carlo simulation to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods at evaluating the sound pressure ranges in an exterior acoustic field.