Renjie Jiang

Membrane-type acoustic metamaterials (MAMs) are the focus of the current research due to their lightweight, small size, and good low-frequency sound insulation performance. However, there exists difficulties for extensive application because of the narrow sound insulation band. In order to achieve broadband sound isolation under the premise of lightweight, a novel MAM with asymmetric rings is firstly proposed in this paper. The sound transmission loss (STL) of this MAM is calculated by an analytical method and is verified by the finite element model. The different properties of the membrane when it is loaded with one, two, or four mass blocks are analyzed. The comparison with the traditional MAM proves the superior performance of this novel MAM. Moreover, by discussing the influence of the eccentricity and distribution position of the masses on the results, the tunability of the sound insulation performance of this MAM is proven. Finally, the Isight platform is used to optimize the MAM to further improve the broadband sound insulation performance: the average STL of the MAM is improved by 15.7%, the bandwidth above 30 dB is improved by 11.5%, and the mass density is reduced by 30.01%.

The sound insulation capacity of traditional sound insulation boards is limited by the law of mass, and any improvement in sound insulation capacity contradicts the demand for light weight. In order to overcome this shortcoming, a lightweight particle reinforced gradient honeycomb sandwich panel is proposed to achieve lightweight sound insulation. The sound insulation of the particle reinforced honeycomb sandwich panel is calculated based on the transfer matrix method. The accuracy of the theory is verified through finite element simulation, and the influence of material and structural parameters on the sound insulation performance of the sandwich panel is analyzed. The results show that the sound insulation of the honeycomb sandwich panel can be significantly improved by adding reinforcement particles to the aluminum matrix, and the sound insulation also increases as the particle mass fraction of the reinforcement increases. In addition, the valley value of the sound insulation curve moves towards the low frequency direction, which indicates that the sound insulation performance of the sandwich plate at low frequencies is effectively improved.

Membrane-type acoustic metamaterials (MAMs) have recently received widespread attention due to their good low-frequency sound-transmission-loss (STL) performance. A fast prediction method for the STL of rectangular membranes loaded with masses of arbitrary shapes and surface density values is proposed as a semi-analytical model for calculating the STL of membrane-type acoustic metamaterials. Through conformal mapping theory, the mass blocks of arbitrary shapes were transformed into regular shapes, which simplified the calculation model of acoustic propagation loss prediction, and the prediction results were verified by finite element simulations. The results show that the change in mass surface density was closely related to the size and frequency distribution of STL. The influence of the mass center on the STL and characteristic frequency of the film metamaterial is discussed.

The existing sandwich structure of the aircraft cabin demonstrates a good sound insulation effect in medium and high frequency bands, but poor in the low frequency band. Therefore, we propose an infinite new lightweight broadband noise control structure and study its sound transmission loss (STL). The structure is an orthogonally rib-stiffened honeycomb double sandwich structure with periodic arrays of shunted piezoelectric patches, and demonstrates lighter mass and better strength than the existing sandwich structure. The structure is equivalent according to Hoff’s equal stiffness theory and the effective medium (EM) method. Using the virtual work principle for a periodic element, two infinite sets of coupled equations are obtained. They are solved by truncating them in a finite range until the solution converges. The correctness and validity of the model are verified by using simulation results and theoretical predictions. Eventually, a further study is performed on the factors influencing the STL. All the results demonstrate that the STL in low-frequency can be improved by the structure, and the sound insulation bandwidth is significantly broadened by adding shunted piezoelectric patches. The structure can provide a new idea for the design of broadband sound insulation.