On the Practicability of Ceramic-Tiled Walls for Sound Absorption by Tuning Cavities

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that structuring ceramic tiles with tuned cavities, such as Helmholtz resonators, can create broadband sound absorption on walls, effectively reducing low-frequency noise in architectural settings.

Contribution

It introduces a practical method of enhancing sound absorption using ceramic tiles with integrated resonant cavities, validated through modeling, fabrication, and experiments.

Findings

Broadband sound absorption achieved across a wide frequency range.

Effective noise mitigation for impact and ambient sounds.

Validated approach suitable for real-world architectural applications.

Abstract

We present the practicality of structuring ceramic tiles for enhancing sound absorption on rigid walls. The cornerstone of our methodology is to structure walls with cavities so that walls effectively behave as heterogeneous absorbing surfaces over a large frequency bandwidth. Using this approach, ceramic tiled walls are developed by integrating tuned cavity structures based on Helmholtz resonators. Such a design leverages the empty joints between tiles to form resonator necks, while the space between the ceramic tiles and the wall acts as the resonator chambers. By arranging these resonators in a spatially graded array, we achieve broadband sound absorption which targets low-frequency noise generated by impacts, footsteps and ambient sources. This makes the system highly suitable for practical architectural applications. The study encompasses the entire process, from numerical modeling and analytical formulation to the fabrication and mounting of resonant tiles, followed by experimental validation, clearly demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed solution in real-world conditions. The findings highlight the strong potential of this approach for practical tiled room acoustic treatment and noise mitigation.