This invention relates to novel sound attenuating structures, and in particular to locally resonant sonic materials (LRSM) that are able to provide a shield or sound barrier against a particular frequency range and which can be stacked together to act as a broad-frequency sound attenuation shield.
In recent years, a new class of sonic materials has been discovered, based on the principle of structured local oscillators. Such materials can break the mass density law of sound attenuation, which states that in order to attenuate sound transmission to the same degree, the thickness, or mass per unit area, of the solid panel has to vary inversely with the sound frequency. Thus with the conventional sound attenuation materials low frequency sound attenuation can require very thick solid panels, or panels made with very high density material, such as lead.
The basic principles underlying this new class of materials, denoted as locally resonant sonic materials (LRSM) have been published in Science, vol. 289, p. 1641-1828 (2000), and such materials are also described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,576,333, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/964,529 on the various designs for the implementation of this type of LRSM. However, current designs still suffer from the fact that the breaking of the mass density law is only confined to a narrow frequency range. Thus in applications requiring sound attenuation over a broad frequency range the LRSM can still be fairly thick and heavy.
According to the present invention there is provided a sound attenuation panel comprising, a rigid frame divided into a plurality of individual cells, a sheet of a flexible material, and a plurality of weights wherein each said weight is fixed to said sheet of flexible material such that each cell is provided with a respective weight.
Preferably each weight is provided in the center of a cell.
The flexible material may be any suitable soft material such as an elastomeric material like rubber, or a material such as nylon. Preferably the flexible material should have a thickness of less than about 1 mm. Importantly the flexible material should ideally be impermeable to air and without any perforations or holes otherwise the effect is significantly reduced.
The rigid frame may be made of a material such as aluminum or plastic. The function of the grid is for support and therefore the material chosen for the grid is not critical provided it is sufficiently rigid and preferably lightweight.
Typically the spacing of the cells within the grid is in the region of 0.5-1.5 cm. In some cases, in particular if the flexible sheet is thin, the size of the grid can have an effect on the frequency being blocked, and in particular the smaller the grid size, the higher the frequency being blocked. However the effect of the grid size becomes less significant if the flexible sheet is thicker.
A typical dimension for one of the weights is around 5 mm with a mass in the range of 0.2 to 2 g. Generally all the weights in one panel will have the same mass and the mass of the weight is chosen to achieve sound attenuation at a desired frequency, and if all other parameters remain the same the frequency blocked will vary with the inverse square root of the mass. The dimensions of the weights are not critical in terms of the frequency being blocked, but they may affect the coupling between the incoming sound and the resonant structure. A relatively “flat” shape for the weight may be preferred, and hence a headed screw and nut combination is quite effective. Another possibility is that the weight may be formed by two magnetic components (such as magnetic discs) that may be fixed to the membrane without requiring any perforation of the membrane, instead one component could be fixed on each side of the membrane with the components being held in place by their mutual attraction.
A single panel may attenuate only a relatively narrow band of frequencies. However, a number of panels may be stacked together to form a composite structure. In particular if each panel is formed with different weights and thus attenuating a different range of frequencies, the composite structure may therefore have a relatively large attenuation bandwidth.
Accordingly therefore the invention also extends to sound attenuation structure comprising a plurality of panels stacked together wherein each said panel comprises a rigid frame divided into a plurality of individual cells, a sheet of a soft material, and a plurality of weights wherein each said weight is fixed to said sheet of soft material such that each cell is provided with a respective weight.
An individual sound attenuating panel as described above is generally sound reflecting. If it is desired to reduce the sound reflection then a panel as described above may be combined with a known sound absorbing panel.
Accordingly therefore the invention also extends to a sound attenuation structure comprising, a rigid frame divided into a plurality of individual cells, a sheet of a soft material, and a plurality of weights wherein each said weight is fixed to said sheet of soft material such that each cell is provided with a respective weight, and a sound absorption panel.
Some embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The current invention relates to a new type of LRSM design. Basically, the local oscillators can be regarded as composed of two components: the mass m of the oscillator, and the spring K of the oscillator. It is usually counter productive to increase m since that will increase the overall weight of the panels. Hence one should choose to lower K. However, a lower K is usually associated with soft materials, which would be difficult to sustain structurally. In preferred embodiments of the present invention, however, a lower K is achieved through geometric means as will be seen from the following.
Consider the usual mass-spring geometry whereby the mass displacement x is equal to the spring displacement, so that the restoring force is given by Kx. Consider the case in which the mass displacement is transverse to the spring as shown in
it follows that a weak effective K′ would yield a very low resonance frequency. Thus we can afford to use a lighter mass m in our design and still achieve the same effect.
The above discussion is for extreme cases where the diameter of the spring, or rather that of an elastic rod, is much smaller than its length l. When the diameter is comparable to l, the restoring force is proportional to the lateral displacement x and the force constant K′ would hence be independent of x. For medium-range diameters K′ changes gradually from independent of x to linearly dependent on x, i.e., the x-independent region of the displacement gradually shrinks to zero. In two-dimensional configurations, this corresponds to a mass on an elastic membrane with thickness ranging from much smaller than the lateral dimension to comparable to it. The effective force constant K′ depends on the actual dimensions of the membrane as well as the tension on the elastic membrane. All these parameters can be adjusted to obtain the desired K′ to match the given mass, so as to achieve the required resonance frequency. For example, to reach higher resonance frequency one could use either lighter weights, or increase the K′ of the membrane by stacking two or more membranes together, the effect of which is the same as using a single but thicker membrane. The resonance frequency may also be adjusted by varying the tension in the membrane when it is secured to the rigid grid. For example if the tension of the membrane is increased then the resonance frequency will also increase.
As shown in
The flexible sheet may be a single sheet that covers multiple cells, or each cell may be formed with an individual flexible sheet attached to the frame. Multiple flexible sheets may also be provided superimposed on each other, for example two thinner sheets could be used to replace one thicker sheet. The tension in the flexible sheet can also be varied to affect the resonant frequency of the system.
The resonance frequency (natural frequency) of the system is determined by the mass m and the effective force constant K of the rubber sheet, which is equal to the rubber elasticity times a geometric factor dictated by the size of the cell and the thickness of the rubber sheet, in a simple relation
If K is kept constant, the resonance frequency (and therefore the frequency at which transmission is minimum) is proportional to {square root}{square root over (1/m)}. This can be used to estimate the mass needed to obtain the desired dip frequency.
Four samples of LRSM panels made in accordance with the design of
Sample 1
The panel of Sample 1 consists of two grids with one grid superimposed on the other and the grids being fixed together by cable ties. Each cell is square with sides of 1.5 cm and the height of each grid is 0.75 cm. Two rubber sheets (each 0.8 mm thick) are provided with one sheet being held between the two grids, and the other sheet being fixed over a surface of the panel. Both sheets are fixed to the grids without any prior tension being applied. A weight is attached to each rubber sheet in the center of the sheet in the form of a stainless steel screw and nut combination. In Sample 1 the weights of each screw/nut combination is 0.48 g.
Sample 2
The panel of Sample 2 is identical to Sample 1 except that the weight of each screw/nut combination is 0.76 g.
Sample 3
The panel of Sample 3 is identical to Sample 1 except that the weight of each screw/nut combination is 0.27 g.
Sample 4
The panel of Sample 4 is identical to Sample 1 except that the weight of each screw/nut combination is 0.136 g and the screw/nut combination is formed of Teflon.
For sound insulation at higher frequencies lighter weight is used as in Sample 4.
To compare these results with the traditional sonic transmission attenuation techniques, it is possible to use the so-called mass-density law of sound transmission (in air) through a solid panel with mass density ρ and thickness d: t∝(f d ρ)−1. At ˜500 Hz, it is comparable to a solid panel with more than one order of magnitude heavier in weight, not to mention even lower frequencies.
The LRSM panels of preferred embodiments of the invention all have reflection near 90%, and a low reflection panel may be added to reduce the reflection or increase the absorption.
As can be seen from the above description of preferred embodiments, the LRSM panels of preferred embodiments of the present invention are formed of a rigid frame with cells, over which is fixed a soft material such as a thin rubber sheet. In each of the cells a small mass can then be fixed to the center of the rubber sheet (
The frame can have a small thickness. In this manner, when a sound wave in the resonance frequency range impinges on the panel, a small displacement of the mass will be induced in the direction transverse to the rubber sheet. The rubber sheet in this case acts as the weak spring for the restoring force. As a single panel can be very thin, a multitude of sonic panels can be stacked together to act as a broad-frequency sound attenuation panel, collectively breaking the mass density law over a broad frequency range.
Compared with previous designs, this new design has the following advantages: (1) the sonic panels can be very thin, (2) the sonic panels can be very light (low in density), (3) the panels can be stacked together to form a broad-frequency LRSM material which can break the mass density law over a broad frequency range. In particular, it can break the mass density law for frequencies below 500 Hz; (4) the panels can be fabricated easily and at low cost.
The LRSM is inherently a reflecting material. By itself it has very low absorption. Hence in applications where low reflection is also desired, the LRSM may be combined with other sound absorbing materials, in particular a combined LRSM-absorption panel can act as a low-transmission, low-reflection sound panel over the frequency range of 120-1000 Hz. Usually over 1000 Hz the sound can be easily attenuated, and no special arrangement would be needed. Thus in essence the present sonic panels can solve the sound attenuation problems in both indoor and outdoor applications, over a very wide frequency range.
For indoor applications, for example in wood-frame houses where the walls are fabricated using wood frames with gypsum boards, LRSM panels according to embodiments of the present invention can be inserted between the gypsum boards, to achieve superior sound insulation between rooms by adding more than 35 dB of transmission loss to the existing walls. For outdoor applications, the panels can also be used as inserts inside the concrete or other weather-proofing frames, and to shield environmental noise (especially the low frequency noise).
Appendix
Measurement Technique
The measurement approach is based on modifying the standard method [ASTM C384-98 “Standard test method for impedance and absorption of acoustical materials by the impedance tube method.”]. Impedance tubes were used to generate plane sound waves inside the tube while screening out room noise.
The front tube 10 has a length df=27.5 cm and a diameter of 10 cm. First and second sensors 13,14 are spaced apart by 10 cm, and the second sensor is spaced from the sample 9 by 10.5 cm. Third sensor 15 in the back impedance tube 11 is spaced from sample 9 by 10.5 cm and the back tube 11 has the same diameter as the front tube 10, ie 10 cm.
The back impedance tube 11 effectively shields the room noise from the third sensor 15, so that the measurements can be carried out in a normal laboratory (instead of a specially equipped quiet room). A sinusoidal signal was sent from a lock-in amplifier to drive the loudspeaker 12 through a power amplifier, which also measured the signal from third sensor 15. The frequency of the wave was scanned in a range from 200 Hz to 1400 Hz at 2 Hz intervals, while the electric signals, both in-phase and out-phase, were measured by the three (two-phase) lock-in amplifiers. Single frequency excitation and phase sensitive detection significantly improved the signal to noise ratio as compared to the more widely employed broadband source with autocorrelation multi-channel frequency analysis, which is more susceptible to noise interference at low frequencies. All sensors have been calibrated to obtained their relative response curves by the conventional switching position method.
For completeness, below is given the derivation of the relevant formulae used in the data analysis. The following terms used in the derivation will first be defined:
By assuming the sound wave being a plane wave in the tube, and by taking the Z-axis direction to the right and z=0 at the sample surface, the amplitudes at first sensor 13 and second sensor 14 are given by
The sound wave at the back surface of the sample is then
By taking z=0 at the back side of the sample for the waves in the back tube, the signal at the third sensor 15 is
From Eq. (1) the reflection coefficient r of the sample is obtained as
where H1,2 X2/X1. Equation (3) is the same as used in the standard two-microphone method to determine the reflection r using the measured transfer function H1,2.
The transmission coefficient t can be obtained through X3/X2 and r in Eqts (1) and (2):
t=e−i
The transmission loss (TL) is defined as TL (dB)=−20*log(|t|).