Spheroidal wave solutions for sound radiation problems in the near-field of planar structures

•We derive spheroidal wave solutions for the acoustics of planar structures.•These frequency-dependent solutions decouple the source–field acoustical transfers.•Their accuracy is assessed against results from a vibro-acoustic model.•These solutions optimally represent the active and reactive power components.•A near-field zone is defined in which the reactive component prevails.

Current research in active noise control and in the reconstruction of vibrating sources often requires knowledge of the independent source–field components that best represent the complex acoustical transfer paths observed between a radiating structure and a given control or observation domain. In this paper, closed-form solutions are provided for the singular value expansion of the radiation operator that maps the boundary velocity of a baffled rectangular structure onto the acoustic pressure observed in the half-space domain over a hemi-spheroidal surface located at an arbitrary separation distance from the radiator, including in the near-field zone. Independent contributions of the evanescent and propagating wave components to the complex power are examined for a baffled beam when varying the frequency and the source–field distance parameter. It is shown that the reactive-to-active power ratio induced by each singular mode follows an inverse power law that scales on the product between the reduced frequency and the source–field distance parameter. A transitional region is defined in the space-frequency domain within which the reactive power components are preponderant and should be accounted for when controlling or imaging the near-field zone of a planar radiator. The optimality of the singular source modes is found to be of interest to actively reduce the active and reactive power components in the near-field zone of a radiator with a limited number of independent control channels.