The present disclosure relates to acoustic energy absorption structures. Embodiments may be further suited to structures that exhibit high efficiency acoustic energy absorption over a broad frequency range from 20 Hz to 6 kHz.
A sound absorber with a broadband and high absorption at a deep-subwavelength scale is of great interest in many fields, such as room acoustics, automobiles, and aerospace engineering. The emergence of acoustic metamaterials and acoustic meta-surfaces has enabled novel methods to design acoustic functional devices and has facilitated the development of new sound absorbing structures. To achieve the deep-subwavelength scale, one strategy is to use a very thin decorated membrane. In such a design, however, a uniform and controlled tension of the membranes is needed, which leads to fabrication challenges and durability issues. Another strategy is to modify the geometry of the conventional Helmholtz resonator (HR) and the micro-perforated panel (MPP) into space-coiling structures, embedded-neck structures, or multi-coiled structures. Under the condition of impedance match or critical coupling, these designs can achieve a perfect sound absorption. Both the strategies above, however, have relatively narrow absorption bandwidth, which inevitably hinders practical applications. Some designs improve the bandwidth of single/identical resonator by tailoring the damping, such as increasing the intrinsic material damping or utilizing a heavily overdamped condition. Such designs, however, are either impractical or can hardly be applied to airborne sound absorption without an impractically thick panel.
A sound absorbing panel comprises of a veneer with non-uniform openings and a back panel with different sized cavities, which can include space-coiled cavities. The openings in the veneer have different shapes, sizes, or arrangements, which are determined from a desired absorption spectrum. The back panel is composed of space-coiled cavities with different volumes. The openings and the associated space-coiled cavity form a unit cell to collectively absorb noise with a certain range of frequency. Different unit cells are combined to create a super cell, which provides a plurality of resonant modes for broadband sound absorption. The combined super cell structure can achieve broader frequency ranges of high acoustic absorption within a specific thickness thinner than structures of conventional Helmholtz resonators and conventional micro-perforated panel.
According to one embodiment, a sound absorbing panel comprises a cavity section having a plurality of resonant cavities and a front panel having a plurality of sets of openings. Each set of openings is configured to provide fluid communication between one of the plurality of resonant cavities and the environment. Each of the plurality of resonant cavities has different dimensions from the remaining plurality of resonant cavities such that each of the resonant cavities is tuned for a different frequency range.
According to one embodiment, a sound absorbing panel comprises at least one group of sound absorbing cells and a front panel having a plurality of sets of openings. Each cell within the group comprises a resonant cavity with predetermined dimensions. Each set of openings corresponds to a sound absorbing cell and is configured to provide fluid communication between the resonant cavity of the cell and the environment. The resonant cavity of each of the plurality of sound absorbing cells in the group has different dimensions from the remaining plurality of resonant cavities such that each of the resonant cavities in the group is tuned for a different frequency range.
According to one embodiment, a sound absorbing panel comprises a cavity section having a plurality of resonant cavities, a front panel having a plurality of sets of openings, and a back panel that otherwise isolates the plurality of resonant cavities from the environment. Each set openings is configured to provide fluid communication between one of the plurality of resonant cavities and the environment. The panel is divided into at least one group of sound absorbing cells, where each cell comprises one of the resonant cavities and one of the plurality of sets of openings. The resonant cavity of each of the plurality of sound absorbing cells in the group has different dimensions from the remaining plurality of resonant cavities such that each of the resonant cavities in the group is tuned for a different frequency range.
In some embodiments, each of the sets of openings differs from the remaining sets of openings in at least one of opening size, length, and distance between openings. In some embodiments, at least one of the plurality of resonant cavities comprises outer walls and at least one baffle such that the resonant cavity is coiled. In some embodiments, the resonant cavity is coiled parallel to a plane defined by the front panel. In some embodiments, the resonant cavity is coiled perpendicular to a plane defined by the front panel.
Embodiments achieve broadband absorption by creating many resonances in a given frequency range. The disclosed techniques can provide high-efficiency acoustic energy absorption over a broadband frequency range.
An exemplary broadband sound absorbing panel includes periodic super cells that each include a plurality of unit cells, which each absorb a partial frequency band of noise. The frequency response of the super cell is a sum of the frequency bands of the unit cells.
Each unit cell of the super cell includes openings drilled throughout the veneer and an air cavity connected to them. In some embodiments, Neither the openings within each unit cell nor the openings in different unit cells need be the same size. Each unit cell includes at least one through opening, which allows the back cavity to be in fluid communication with the environment through the opening(s).
The openings in the veneer panel 10 provide fluid communication between the environment and a resonant cavity behind each group of openings. The arrangement of the veneer relative to the resonant cavities is illustrated in the exemplary exploded view shown in
In some embodiments, the volume of the resonant cavity can be varied to achieve a desired resonant effect. The resonant properties of each cell are determined by the characteristics of the cavity geometry and the size and arrangement of the openings into the cavity. In some implementations, both the aperture sizes and cavity volumes can be varied simultaneously to provide even better control of the frequency absorption.
One non-limiting example of sound absorption is given, which is targeted toward audio frequencies 224 Hz-447 Hz. It is understood that other frequency ranges may be targeted, including those below 224 Hz and sub-audible frequencies, as well as frequencies above 447 Hz.
To better illustrate the sound absorbing panel, start from the case where plane incident wave along z-axis p normally impinges on the assumed sound absorbing panel. The sound absorbing system could be fully characterized by its normalized surface impedance ZS. The absorption coefficient can be calculated by Equation 1
ρ0c0=413.3 Pa·s/m is the characteristic acoustic impedance of air. Re denotes the real part and Im denotes the imaginary part. The coefficients and variables are explained in Tables 1 and 2.
When the panel is composed of M different unit cells in parallel, its absorption performance can be characterized by a mean specific acoustic admittance or a mean specific acoustic impedance at normal incidence,
ZN is the specific acoustic impedance for resonator, and ØN is the surface porosity.
AN is the number of openings in unit cell N. dN is the diameter of the openings. D is the side length of the super cell. Here the openings in each unit cells are assumed to be the same.
The Stinson's model, which is valid for a broad range of frequencies, can be used to model the narrow neck with the visco-thermal loss effect considered. Therefore, we have the impedance for the cylindrical neck with a circular cross-section,
ρ0, c0 and γ are density, speed of sound and the ratio of specific heats of air. The values are taken as 1.21 kg/m3, 343.2 m/s and 1.4.
These refer to the complex wave number, the viscous function and the thermal function of the embedded neck. kv and kh the viscous wave number and the thermal wave number:
η, Cp and K are the dynamic viscosity of air, the specific heat at constant pressure and the fluid thermal conductivity, of which the values are taken as 1.825×10−5 kg/(m·s), 1007 J/(kg·K) and 0.02514 W/(m·K). ln is length of the opening.
S is the cross-sectional area of the cavity. The impedance for the cavity can be approximated as
lc,eff is the effective length of the cavity. lc,eff is the depth of cavity when the cavity is not space coiled. lc,eff can be retrieved from numerical simulations (e.g., COMSOL Multiphysics) if the cavity is space coiled.
The overall impedance of the resonator can be approximated as the sum of the impedances of the opening and the cavity, which reads,
The subscript n represents the openings and c represents the cavity.
In some embodiments, the length of openings can be extended into the corresponding cavity to further shrink the veneer thickness while maintaining the absorption performance. For example, a tube can be placed inside of a hole in the veneer to extend the narrow length of the opening to provide additional characteristics that can be manipulated to tune a resonant chamber to a desired response. An extension of openings can be realized by either an elastic or a non-elastic hollow tube. The tube can be any solid material, such as wood, metal, plastic, composite, etc. The tube can be either straight or curved. In some embodiments the tubes may slip into holes in a veneer or may be molded or coupled to the front veneer panel using any suitable manufacturing process, such as a molded array of tubes that can be fastened to a larger gap in the veneer.
For the embodiments described above, the super cells can be arranged in an repeating pattern/array to create a panel having a face of any desired dimensions. The veneer panel can form a continuous face panel across multiple super cells or can form a discrete face panel for each super cell. Each super cell defines a groups of unit cells that are each tuned to a specific frequency response, which generally differs for each unit in the super cell. The cavity section of the panel can include discrete or monolithic components to for each cavity, as described above. Each cavity is comprised of walls that define the three dimensional extents of the cavity and can include one or more baffles to create a coiled resonator. It should be noted that a coiled resonator need not be folded only in one direction or plane. For example, the coiled resonator in
The present disclosure is not to be limited in terms of the particular embodiments described in this application, which are intended as illustrations of various features. Many modifications and variations can be made without departing from its spirit and scope, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Functionally equivalent methods and apparatuses within the scope of the disclosure, in addition to those enumerated herein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing descriptions. It is to be understood that this disclosure is not limited to particular methods, reagents, compounds, compositions or biological systems, which can, of course, vary. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting.
With respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.
It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein are generally intended as “open” terms (for example, the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” et cetera). While various compositions, methods, and devices are described in terms of “comprising” various components or steps (interpreted as meaning “including, but not limited to”), the compositions, methods, and devices can also “consist essentially of” or “consist of” the various components and steps, and such terminology should be interpreted as defining essentially closed-member groups.
As used in this document, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meanings as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. Nothing in this disclosure is to be construed as an admission that the embodiments described in this disclosure are not entitled to antedate such disclosure by virtue of prior invention.
In addition, even if a specific number is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (for example, the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, et cetera” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (for example, “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, et cetera). In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, et cetera” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (for example, “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, et cetera). It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, sample embodiments, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”
In addition, where features of the disclosure are described in terms of Markush groups, those skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosure is also thereby described in terms of any individual member or subgroup of members of the Markush group.
As will be understood by one skilled in the art, for any and all purposes, such as in terms of providing a written description, all ranges disclosed herein also encompass any and all possible subranges and combinations of subranges thereof. Any listed range can be easily recognized as sufficiently describing and enabling the same range being broken down into at least equal halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, tenths, et cetera. As a non-limiting example, each range discussed herein can be readily broken down into a lower third, middle third and upper third, et cetera. As will also be understood by one skilled in the art all language such as “up to,” “at least,” and the like include the number recited and refer to ranges that can be subsequently broken down into subranges as discussed above. Finally, as will be understood by one skilled in the art, a range includes each individual member. Thus, for example, a group having 1-3 components refers to groups having 1, 2, or 3 components. Similarly, a group having 1-5 components refers to groups having 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 components, and so forth.
Various of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be combined into many other different systems or applications. Various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art, each of which is also intended to be encompassed by the disclosed embodiments.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 63/273,695 titled “Sound Absorbing Panels” filed Oct. 29, 2021, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/US2022/048208 | 10/28/2022 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
63273695 | Oct 2021 | US |