This paper presents numerical simulation studies on the vibration and acoustic response characteristics of an isotropic rectangular plate in a thermal environment using commercial finite element softwares ANSYS and SYSNOISE. First the critical buckling temperature is obtained, followed by modal and harmonic analyses considering prestress due to the thermal field in the plate, with the critical buckling temperature as a parameter. The vibration response predicted is then used to compute the sound radiation. It is found that the displacement response of the structure increases with an increase in temperature for all boundary conditions. The overall sound radiation of the plate marginally increases with an increase in temperature for all boundary conditions when the temperature approaches the critical buckling temperature although there is a sharp increase in sound power levels. Copyright © 2008 by ASME.