Scattering of sound by a heavily loaded finite elastic plate

A plane wave is incident onto a finite plate set in a rigid baffle, and the scattered field is examined in the limit when fluid-plate coupling effects are large. An asymptotic solution is obtained, matching an outer region with inner regions at either edge of the plate. Waves are found to be present on the flexible surface, and resonance is shown to occur for particular values of the plate half-length, a . Away from a resonance, the leading term in the expansion of the outer potential is the solution of the boundary value problem in the absence of the plate. As a resonance is approached, however, eigensolutions, with singularities at the plate edges, also become present at this order.