The level of detail required for accurate structural acoustic modeling
of fluid loaded structures remains an issue of significant debate. An
alytical solutions are rarely available, and discrete numerical soluti
ons are typically too complex for ready extraction of physical underst
anding. In addition, numerical techniques introduce their own explicit
scales through the minimum mesh dimension. However, the wavenumber ba
sed formulation of the surface variational principle describes the sur
face pressure and displacement as a comparatively small set of interac
ting waves. Coupling the SVP with distributed methods of representing
structural attachment features provides a means to introduce, control,
and investigate features of differing scales. We present here a techn
ique for assessing the critical resolution scales for a fluid loaded t
wo-dimensional plate. For feature attachments, we consider a line-mass
elastically suspended by a line-spring from the wetted plate. The exc
itation applied to the plate is taken as a concentrated harmonic force
. With the excitation held fixed, the influence of the scale of the fe
ature spatial representation on the radiated power is assessed.