Metamaterial sound absorbers based on microperforated panels: an approach toward enhanced flexibility and near-limit broadband performance

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new class of microperforated panel sound absorbers, called meta-MPPs, that achieve ultrabroadband, near-total sound absorption with enhanced flexibility, robustness, and tunability, surpassing traditional designs.

Contribution

The authors develop meta-MPPs leveraging reciprocity and cavity resonances, enabling ultrabroadband absorption with improved performance and adaptability over existing microperforated panel absorbers.

Findings

Achieve over 100% performance improvement compared to traditional MPPs.

Demonstrate near-total sound absorption from 0.37 to 10 kHz.

Show robustness to parameter variations and tunability between asymmetric and omnidirectional modes.

Abstract

Traditional microperforated panels (MPPs) and metamaterial-based sound absorbers rely on local resonances or multi-resonator designs, which limit their bandwidth, angular applicability, and ease of fabrication. Leveraging the reciprocity theorem and cavity resonances, we introduce a new class of robust MPP absorbers, termed meta-MPPs, capable of achieving ultrabroadband near-total sound absorption across a range of 0.37 to 10 kHz. These absorbers demonstrate average performance exceeding that of traditional MPPs by over 100%, approaching the theoretical causality limit. Notably, their absorption performance can be tuned between angularly asymmetric and omnidirectional modes and remains highly robust to variations in MPP parameters and geometrical configurations. Validated through simulations and experiments, our findings present a simpler, more robust, and highly adaptable solution for noise control.