Acoustic breakout noise is predominant in flexible rectangular ducts. The study of the sound radiated from the thin flexible rectangular duct walls helps in understanding breakout noise. The current paper describes an analytical model, to predict the sound radiation characteristics like total radiated sound power level, modal radiation efficiency, and directivity of the radiated sound from the duct walls. The analytical model is developed based on an equivalent plate model of the rectangular duct. This model has considered the coupled and uncoupled behaviour of both acoustic and structural subsystems. The proposed analytical model results are validated using finite element method (FEM) and boundary element method (BEM). Duct acoustic and structural modes are analysed to understand the sound radiation behaviour of a duct and its equivalence with monopole and dipole sources. The most efficient radiating modes are identified by vibration displacement of the duct walls and for these the radiation efficiencies have been calculated. The calculated modal radiation efficiencies of a duct compared to a simple rectangular plate indicate similar radiation characteristics. © 2016 Praveena Raviprolu et al.