An Integration Strategy for Acoustic Metamaterials to Achieve Absorption by Design

As much of metamaterials' properties originate from resonances, the novel characteristics displayed by acoustic metamaterials are a narrow bandwidth and high dispersive in nature. However, for practical applications, broadband is often a necessity. Furthermore, it would even be better if acoustic metamaterials can display tunable bandwidth characteristics, e.g., with an absorption spectrum that is tailored to fit the noise spectrum. In this article we present a designed integration strategy for acoustic metamaterials that not only overcomes the narrow-band Achilles' heel for acoustic absorption but also achieves such effect with the minimum sample thickness as dictated by the law of nature. The three elements of the design strategy comprise: (a) the causality constraint, (b) the determination of resonant mode density in accordance with the input target impedance, and (c) the accounting of absorption by evanescent waves. Here, the causality constraint relates the absorption spectrum to a minimum sample thickness, derived from the causal nature of the acoustic response. We have successfully implemented the design strategy by realizing three structures of which one acoustic metamaterial structure, comprising 16 Fabry-Perot resonators, is shown to exhibit near-perfect flat absorption spectrum starting at 400 Hz. The sample has a thickness of 10.86 cm, whereas the minimum thickness as dictated by the causality constraint is 10.55 cm in this particular case. A second structure demonstrates the flexible tunability of the design strategy by opening a reflection notch in the absorption spectrum, extending from 600 to 1000 Hz, with a sample thickness that is only 3 mm above the causality minimum. We compare the designed absorption structure with conventional absorption materials/structures, such as the acoustic sponge and micro-perforated plate, with equal thicknesses as the metamaterial structure. In both cases the designed metamaterial structure displays superior absorption performance in the target frequency range.