Acoustic metamaterial plate embedded with Helmholtz resonators for extraordinary

sound transmission loss

Takashi Yamamoto

Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 123, 215110 (2018); doi: 10.1063/1.5025570

View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5025570
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/jap/123/21
Published by the American Institute of Physics
 JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 123, 215110 (2018)

Acoustic metamaterial plate embedded with Helmholtz resonators

for extraordinary sound transmission loss
Takashi Yamamoto
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kogakuin University, 2665-1 Nakano, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0015,
Japan

(Received 10 February 2018; accepted 20 May 2018; published online 7 June 2018)
A new acoustic metamaterial plate (AMP) is proposed herein. The plate incorporates Helmholtz
resonators that are periodically embedded at intervals shorter than acoustic wavelengths. This
metamaterial plate exhibits extraordinary sound transmission loss (STL) at the resonance
frequency of the Helmholtz resonators compared to a conventional flat plate. The STL of the AMP
can be theoretically analyzed using the effective mass density and flexural rigidity. At the resonant
frequency, the dynamic density of the AMP becomes much larger than that of a conventional solid
flat plate with the same mass. When the Helmholtz resonant frequency is tuned to the coincidence
frequency of the AMP, the dip in transmission loss owing to the coincidence effect is not observed.
The frequency band, wherein high STL occurs, is narrow; however, the frequency band can be
widened by embedding multiple resonators with slightly different resonant frequencies. Numerical
experiments are also performed to demonstrate the acoustic performance of the proposed system.
In the simulation, Helmholtz resonators with the 2.1-kHz resonant frequency are embedded at 20-
mm intervals inside a 6-mm-thick flat glass plate. Analytical solutions of this system agree well
with numerical solutions for various incidence angles of incoming plane waves. In this configura-
tion, we find that the degradation of STL caused by the coincidence effect is nearly eliminated for
waves that are incident at random angles. Published by AIP Publishing.
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5025570

I. INTRODUCTION into acoustic metamaterials. Cummer et al.6 and Ma and

Sound transmission loss (STL) of an elastic plate or wall
is one of the important evaluation indexes for sound insula-
tion; higher STL is required for quieter rooms. However,
STL decreases at the frequency wherein the wavelength of
the incoming sound wave is identical to the wavelength of
bending motion of the elastic plate or wall. This physical
phenomenon is known as the coincidence effect, and it
should be considered in industrial designs.
To suppress the degradation of STL caused by the coinci-
dence effect, the loss factor of the material used is often
increased. Viscoelastic thin films are often interlaced between
elastic plates for this purpose,1,2 but it is generally difficult to
increase the loss factor of a layered system. Alternatively, vis-
coelastic rubber sheets of 2–3-mm thickness can be stacked
on an elastic plate.3 In this case, STL is improved in the low
frequency range based on the mass law; however, consider-
able mass is added by the viscoelastic rubber sheets, which is
not recommended in the view of the light weight designs.
The concept of a metamaterial was introduced by
Veselago4 to allow the manipulation of electromagnetic
wave propagation. Metamaterials are artificially engineered
materials and usually comprise of periodic structures with
periods shorter than the wavelength to be manipulated. Split-
ring resonators, for example, are periodically aligned5 as unit
cell structures. Inspired by the analogy between the govern-
ing equations of the electromagnetic and acoustic waves, the
concept of using metamaterial to manipulate acoustic waves
has been extended, and these types of materials are classified
Sheng7 gave comprehensive reviews on recent developments
of acoustic metamaterials. Furthermore, the concept of a
metamaterial has also been extended to control elastic waves
by Nouh et al.8 and Al Ba’ba’a et al.9
Liu et al.10 first reported an acoustic metamaterial that
includes periodically arranged lead balls coated with silicone
rubber to enhance STL. Lewınska et al.11 proposed a locally
resonant acoustic metamaterial with inclusions coated with
viscoelastic material to manipulate bandgaps. Groby et al.12
and Jimenez et al.13 enhanced sound absorption in the low
frequency range with Helmholtz resonators aligned in a thin
panel at intervals less than the wavelength. Fang et al.14 and
Wang et al.15 designed at the side wall of one dimensional
acoustic duct to enhance sound transmission loss. To
improve STL of planar structures, Prydz et al.16 applied a
multilayer panel with internal tuned Helmholtz resonators
where the resonator works as a tuned mass damper for the
resonance of a double-walled structure. Sui et al.17 realized
high STL below 1 kHz using membranes attached on a hon-
eycomb. Yang et al.18 and Langfeldt et al.19 proposed a
membrane acoustic metamaterial at the surface of a panel
structure that improved transmission loss at low frequencies.
Varanasi et al.20 presented a planar cellular metamaterial
that increased STL at low frequency ranges relative to a
homogeneous solid panel of equal area-mass density. Xiao
et al.21,22 and Wang et al.23 developed metamaterial thin
plates comprising of multiple sub-wavelength arrays of
spring-mass resonators. Oudich et al.24 extended a general
approach for computing the STL of a thick plate embedded

0021-8979/2018/123(21)/215110/9/$30.00 123, 215110-1 Published by AIP Publishing.

215110-2 Takashi Yamamoto J. Appl. Phys. 123, 215110 (2018)

FIG. 1. Schematic views of an AMP

periodically embedded with resonators
inside plate; (a) perspective view and
(b) transparent view.

with a square periodic array of low-frequency spring-mass
resonators.
In this study, we propose a new acoustic metamaterial
plate (AMP) that is periodically embedded with Helmholtz
resonators in sub-wavelength periods to enhance STL at the
coincidence frequency range. In the proposed AMP,
Helmholtz resonators embedded in a vibrating plate work in
an analogous way with the elastic membranes at the surface
of a planar structure. A significant difference comparing
with a conventional Helmholtz resonator is that a resonator
vibrating itself generates the acoustic wave which is out of
phase with the acoustic wave from the surrounding base
plate by almost 180 at the Helmholtz resonance frequency,
and cancels locally the acoustic wave from the plate. Since
this material requires no extra mass, the proposed approach
can offer a weight-efficient solution to improve STL.
Analytical solutions for the STL of this AMP are derived
based on the effective medium theory and are then verified
via numerical simulations.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows:
Analytical solutions are derived to evaluate the STL of the
AMP in Sec. II, and Sec. III compares these solutions with
numerical results. The final section draws conclusions and
summarizes our study and draws conclusions. A linear har-
monic regime is assumed for vibration and sound herein, and
time dependence ejxt is omitted, where j is the imaginary
unit and x is the angular frequency.
compared to the wavelength of bending deformation of the
plate, the flexural displacement in this unit cell can be con-
sidered as approximately uniform. Let the mass density of
air be q0, and the speed of sound be c0. The mass density of
the elastic plate material is qs, and the thickness of the plate
is hs. The area of the section and the length of the resonator
throat are S1 and L1, respectively, and the volume of the back
cavity of the resonator is V1. When the frequency range of
interest is lower than the first acoustic resonant frequency
of the back cavity, the sound pressure in the back cavity p1
can be approximated as uniform and can be expressed as
follows:
S1 ðv1  vs Þ b1 k1 ðv1  vs Þ
p1 ¼ K0 ¼ ¼ zh1 ðv1  vs Þ; (1)
jxV1 jx
where K0 is the bulk modulus of air and vs and v1 are the
vibration velocities of the plate and the air in the throat of
the resonator, respectively. Other symbols are defined as
b1 ¼ S1 =S0 ; h1 ¼ V1 =S0 ; k1 ¼ K0 =h1 ; zh1 ¼ b1 k1 =jx, where
S0 is the surface area of unit cell.
Sound pressures and particle velocities of the incident,
reflected, and transmitted waves are written as pi, pr, and
pt and vi, vr, and vt, respectively. The components of wave-
number vectors in the x and y directions are expressed as

II. THEORY
A. Transmission loss of AMP with resonators in unit
cells
Figure 1 schematizes an acoustic metamaterial infinite
plate. Helmholtz resonators with circular cross section of the
back cavity and throat are periodically embedded inside the
plate in sub-wavelength periods. One end of the resonator
throat is connected to ambient air in the transmitted field.
The plate is assumed to be in the plane x ¼ 0. As shown
in Fig. 2, the STL in a section parallel to the z ¼ 0 plane is
considered. A plane wave propagates from the left side of
the plate at the incident elevated angle h and is transmitted
to the right side of the plate. If a unit cell that includes a res- FIG. 2. 2D analytical model of one unit cell of the AMP embedded with
onator inside the plate is assumed to be sufficiently small resonators.
215110-3 Takashi Yamamoto J. Appl. Phys. 123, 215110 (2018)

kx ¼ k0 cos h and ky ¼ k0 sin h, respectively, where k0 is the vi cos h  vr cos h ¼ vs ; (9)

wave number of air. The equations of motion for the plate
and the air in the throat of the resonator are as follows: ð1  b1 Þvs þ b1 v1 ¼ vt cos h: (10)

zs vs ¼ pi þ pr  b1 p1  ð1  b1 Þpt ; (2) When a plane wave propagates through the plate, the inci-
dent, reflected, and transmitted acoustic-wave sound pres-
z1 v1 ¼ p1  pt ; (3) sures pi, pr, and pt, respectively, are proportional to the
particle velocities vi, vr, and vt, respectively, as follows:
where zs and z1 are the effective mechanical impedances of
the plate and the air in the throat of the resonator, respec- pi ¼ z0 vi ; pr ¼ z0 vr ; pt ¼ z0 vt ; (11)
tively. If D and 
g are the effective flexural rigidity and the
loss factor, respectively, zs can be given as25,26 where z0 is the acoustic impedance of air. Substituting these
expressions into Eqs. (9) and (10), the continuity conditions
 þ jg Þk4 1 can be rewritten using zh ¼ z0 = cos h as follows:
zs ¼ qs ðhs  b1 L1  h1 Þjx þ Dð1 y : (4)
jx
pi  pr ¼ zh vs ; (12)
When the radius of the throat is narrow, viscous and thermal
losses arise in the vicinity of the boundary between the air in pt ¼ zh ½ð1  b1 Þvs þ b1 v1 : (13)
the throat and the wall of the throat. If thermal loss is
By deleting pr and pt utilizing Eqs. (12) and (13), the equa-
assumed to be negligibly small, the impedance z1 of the air
tions of motion can be rewritten in the matrix form as
in the throat can be expressed in terms of the effective com-
follows:
plex impedance for a micro-perforated panel proposed by
Maa27 as follows:     
a11 a12 vs 2pi
¼ ; (14)
1 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi a21 a22 v1 0
z1 ¼ ðqfc
1 L1 þ 2q0 d1 r1 Þjx þ a1 2l0 q0 x; (5)
2 where
where qfc
1 is the equivalent complex density, r1 is the radius
of the throat, and l0 ¼ 1.84  105 N s/m2 is the viscosity of a11 ¼ zs þ zh þ ð1  b1 Þ2 zh þ b1 zh1 ; (15)
air. a1 and d1 are the coefficients for end corrections of the a12 ¼ b1 ½ð1  b1 Þzh  zh1 ; (16)
resistive and reactive terms, respectively, and are given by
Allard and Atalla28 as a21 ¼ ð1  b1 Þzh  zh1 ; (17)
pffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffi
a22 ¼ z1 þ b1 zh þ zh1 : (18)
a1 ¼ 4 þ 2L1 =r1 ; d1 ¼ 0:48 p 1  1:14 b1 ; (6)

which is valid for b1 < 0.4. The equivalent complex density Solving the equations above, the velocities of the plate and
can be expressed with a function F that is defined in accor- the air in the throat can be obtained as follows:
dance with the shape of the flow-channel section28,29 given as vs ¼ 2pi ðz1 þ b1 zh þ zh1 Þ=D; (19)
q0
qfc
1 ¼ : (7) v1 ¼ 2pi ðð1  b1 Þzh  zh1 Þ=D; (20)
Fðl0 =q0 ; r1 Þ

For a circular shape, F is given by where D is the determinant of the matrix on the left-hand
side of Eq. (14), given as
 1=2
2 J1 ðsr1 Þ jx
Fðg; r1 Þ ¼ 1  ; s¼  ; (8)
sr1 J0 ðsr1 Þ g D ¼ ðzs þ zh þ ð1  b1 Þ2 zh þ b1 zh1 Þðz1 þ b1 zh þ zh1 Þ

where r1 is the radius of the throat and Ji is the ith order b1 ½ð1  b1 Þzh  zh1 2 : (21)
Bessel function. F can be derived from the analytical solu-
tion of the linearized Navier-Stokes equation for the com- Finally, the transmitted sound pressure pt is calculated as
pressive viscous fluid.29 The real and imaginary parts of 1/ follows:
F(g, r1) in Eq. (8) represent the inertia effect and viscous
pt ¼ 2pi zh ½ð1  b1 Þz1 þ zh1 =D: (22)
loss that arise in the sound propagation through a narrow
cylindrical flow channel, respectively. When viscous loss at The sound transmission ratio sðhÞ for incident angle h can be
the throat is not considered, only the imaginary part of z1 is given as
evaluated. If the inviscid fluid is considered by setting l0
2
! 0; 1=Fðg; r1 Þ approaches 1.0 and the inertia effect is also pt 2zh ½ð1  b1 Þz1 þ zh1  2
diminished. sðhÞ ¼ ¼ : (23)
pi D
From the continuity constraint on the volume velocity at
the boundary between the plate and the ambient air field, the Furthermore, STL for the incident angle h, TL(h), can be
following relations can be derived: given as
215110-4 Takashi Yamamoto J. Appl. Phys. 123, 215110 (2018)

2
D
TLðhÞ ¼ 10 log10 : (24)
2zh ½ð1  b1 Þz1 þ zh1 

TLðhÞ shows a local maximum when ð1  b1 Þz1 þ zh1

becomes 0. This condition cannot be realized owing to the
resistive term of the mechanical impedance z1. If the resis-
tive term of z1 is zero, i.e., Imagðqfc 1 Þ ¼ 0 and a1 ¼ 0 in Eq.
(5), the above condition is satisfied when the frequency
equals fr
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
c0 S0 S1
fr ¼ ; (25)
2p ðS0  S1 ÞðL1 þ 2d1 r1 ÞV1

which is related to the Helmholtz resonance frequency for a

resonator embedded in a vibrating wall.
The transmission ratio s for random incidence can be cal-
culated by integrating s(h) from 0 to p/2, given as follows:
ð p=2
sðhÞ sin h cos hdh
FIG. 3. 2D analytical model of a unit cell of AMP embedded with multiple
s ¼ 0ð p=2 : (26) resonators. This model corresponds to N ¼ 2.
sin h cos hdh
0
X
N

STL for random incidence TL can be obtained as zs vs ¼ 2pi  zh vs þ bi zhi ðvi  vs Þ

i¼1
!
1 X
N
TL ¼ 10 log10 : (27) zh bs bs vs þ bi vi ; (30)
s
i¼1
Including the effect of Helmholtz resonators embedded
0 1
in the plate in the mass term, the effective dynamic area X
N
mass meq can be defined from the conventional mass law of zi vi ¼ zhi ðvi  vs Þ  zh @bs vs þ bj v j A; (31)
STL of a single wall, which is written as j¼1

meq jx cos h pi P
1þ ¼ : (28) where bi ¼ Si =S0 ; bs ¼ 1  Ni¼1 bi ; vi is the particle veloc-
2z0 pt
ity of the air in the throat of the resonator i,
hi ¼ Vi =S0 ; ki ¼ K0 =hi ; zhi ¼ bi ki =jx.
Substituting Eq. (22), meq is calculated as
The mechanical impedance zs of the plate is given as
  !
2zh D XN X N
meq ¼ 1 : (29)  þ jg Þk4 1 ;
jx 2zh ½ð1  b1 Þz1 þ zh1  zs ¼ qs hs  bi Li  hi jx þ Dð1 y
i¼1 i¼1
jx
(32)
In the evaluation of meq, only the mass of the plate is consid-
ered when calculating the mechanical impedance zs of the where Li is the length of the throat of resonator i. The
plate, i.e., zs ¼ qs ðhs  b1 L1  h1 Þjx. mechanical impedance zi of the air in the throat of resonator
i is expressed as
B. Transmission loss of AMP with multiple resonators 1 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
in unit cells zi ¼ ðqfc
i Li þ 2q0 di ri Þjx þ ai 2l0 q0 x; (33)
2
Next, we consider AMP with N resonators in unit cell as where ri is the radius of the throat of the resonator i and qfci
a general extension of AMP with a single resonator in each is the equivalent complex density for a circular throat of
unit cell as shown in Fig. 3. Analytical model based on the radius ri. ai and di are the coefficients for end corrections of
effective medium theory in Eq. (14) can be directly extended the resonator i given as
for multiple resonators in unit cell compared to the transfer
matrix method that basically requires a 2  2 matrix for each pffiffiffi pffiffiffiffi
layer.16 Equations of motion for the plate and the air in the ai ¼ 4 þ 2Li =ri ; di ¼ 0:48 p 1  1:14 bi : (34)
throat of the resonators i ði ¼ 1; 2; …; NÞ are expressed using
the area Si of the throat and the volume Vi of the back cavity The equations of motion can be rewritten in the matrix
of resonator i as follows: form as follows:
215110-5 Takashi Yamamoto J. Appl. Phys. 123, 215110 (2018)

2 3
X
N
2 3 2 3
6 zs þ zh þ b2s zh bj zhj b1 ðbs zh  zh1 Þ  bi ðbs zh  zhi Þ  bN ðbs zh  zhN Þ 7
6 7 vs 2pi
6 j¼1 76 v 1 7 6 0 7
6 76 7 6 7
6 bs zh  zh1 z1 þ b1 zh þ zh1  bi zh  b N zh 76 .. 7 6 .. 7
6 .. .. .. .. 76 . 7 6 . 7
6 76 7 ¼ 6 7
6 . .  .  . 76 vi 7 6 0 7: (35)
6 76 7 6 . 7
6 bs zh  zhi b 1 zh    zi þ bi zh þ zhi  b N zh 76 .. 7 6 . 7
6 .. .. .. .. 74 . 5 4 . 5
6 7
4 . .  .  . 5 vN 0
bs zh  zh3 b 1 zh  bi zh  zN þ bN zh þ zhN

If a plane wave with the amplitude of 1 Pa is incident at the Es ðh1i  Hi  Li Þ3 þ h32i þ h31i  ðh1i  Li Þ3
angle h, vs, and vi can be obtained by solving Eq. (35). The Di ¼ :
1  s2 3
sound pressure pt of the transmitted wave can be calculated
(41)
from the following equation:
! The effective flexural rigidity D of the unit cell that includes
XN a solid plate and a plate embedded with N resonators can be
pt ¼ zh bi vi þ bs vs : (36) written as
i¼1
P
Consequently, using pt, TLðhÞ is obtained as follows: 1 1  Ni¼1 ci X N
ci
 ¼ þ ; (42)
D Ds i¼1
Di
1 2
TLðhÞ ¼ 10 log10 : (37) where ci is the ratio of the area of the resonator i to the area
pt
of the unit cell, i.e., ci ¼ pR2i =S0 where Ri is the radius of the
back cavity of the resonator i. Ds ¼ Es h3s =12ð1  s2 Þ is the
C. Equivalent flexural rigidity of AMP flexural rigidity of the solid plate.
Kirchhoff-Love theory for thin plates is applied to the
part of the plate wherein the resonators are embedded. D. Frequency bound
Furthermore, the holes of the throat are neglected when cal-
culating the flexural rigidity of the plate. Then, as shown in In the analytical model proposed in this study, the
Fig. 4, in the section of the plate wherein resonator i is sound pressure in the back cavity of the resonator i is
embedded, a plate of thickness Li corresponding to the length assumed to be uniform. Thus, the frequency range where
of the throat and a plate of thickness hs  Hi  Li are multi- the model can be applied is bounded by either the lowest
plied with an air layer of thickness Hi; the air layer corre- acoustic resonant frequency of the back cavity or the low-
sponds to the height of the back cavity. The neutral plane is est elastic resonant frequency of the wall of the back cav-
located at the distances h1i, and h2i ðh1i þ h2i ¼ hs ; h1i ity. When the resonator i is assumed to have a cylindrical
> 0; h2i > 0Þ from the surface of the plate. The total stress back cavity of the radius Ri and the height Hi, the lowest
integrated in the cross section should be zero, which leads to acoustic resonance frequency for axial direction fai is
given by
Es ðh1i  Hi  Li Þ2  h22i þ h21i  ðh1i  Li Þ2 c0
¼ 0; (38) fai ¼ : (43)
1  s2 2 2Hi
where Es is Young’s modulus of the plate. Consequently, h1i The lowest resonance frequency for the radial and the azi-
can be obtained as follows: muthal direction fdi is also given by30
h2s  Hi2  2Hi Li c0 1:841
h1i ¼ : (39) fdi ¼ : (44)
2ðhs  Hi Þ 2p Ri

Then, by integrating the equations of motion from h2i to The lowest eigen-frequency of the circular plate with all the
h1i, the following differential equation for bending with edges simply supported can be calculated as follows:31
effective mass and flexural rigidity is obtained: sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
! 1 4:977 Dei
fei ¼ ; (45)
@ 2 ui @ 4 ui @ 4 ui @ 4 ui 2p R2i qs hei
qs ðhs  Hi Þ 2 þ Di þ 2 2 2 þ 4 ¼ 0; (40)
@t @y4 @y @z @z
where Dei ¼ Es h3ei =12ð1  s2 Þ and hei ¼ hs  Hi  Li are the
where ui is the displacement of the plate in the x direction flexural rigidity and the thickness of the circular wall of the
and Di is expressed as back cavity, respectively. Thus, the upper frequency bound
215110-6 Takashi Yamamoto
FIG. 4. Schematic view of AMP embedded with resonator to approximate
effective flexural rigidity by ignoring the hole of the throat. The dotted-and-
dashed line marks the neutral plane for the part of the plate wherein the reso-
nator is embedded.
fUB for the applicability of the proposed analytical AMP
model is given as
fUB ¼ minffa1 ; fd1 ; fe1 ; …; faN ; fdN ; feN g:
The proposed AMP can enhance STL at given frequency
by tuning the resonance frequency of a Helmholtz resonator
fri. To improve STL at lower frequency range, a larger cavity
of the resonator is required. However, a large resonator
reduces the area ratio bi and thereby the efficiency of the
acoustic cancellation. Thus, the lower bound can be defined
in terms of the efficient improvement of STL. If the area
ratio bi should be larger than a prescribed value bmin, the res-
onance frequency is bounded by
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
c0 S0 Si
fri > ; (47)
2p ðS0  Si ÞðLi þ 2di ri ÞS0 Hi
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
c0 bmin
¼ ¼ fr0i :
2p ð1  bmin ÞðLi þ 2di ri ÞHi
The lower frequency bound fLB for the efficiency to improve
STL can be defined as
fLB ¼ maxffr01 ;    ; fr0N g:
III. VERIFICATION WITH NUMERICAL RESULTS
Resonators with a circular throat and a circular back cav-
ity are embedded inside a glass plate in unit cells for the simu-
lations that follow. Analytical transmission loss solutions are
compared with numerical transmission loss results to verify
J. Appl. Phys. 123, 215110 (2018)
FIG. 5. Numerical model of unit cell of an AMP embedded with a resonator.
The dark blue portion is modeled as a compressible viscous fluid, the middle
blue portion is an elastic structure, and the light blue portion is air.
the theory developed above. All the numerical calculations
R
involved were executed in COMSOL MultiphysicsV.
A. Single resonator in unit cell
Figure 5 shows a numerical model of a unit cell of AMP
embedded with a resonator. A plane wave of 1-Pa amplitude
is incident at the elevated angle h and the azimuthal angle /
from the left port of the model and is transmitted to the right
port wherein the nonreflecting boundary condition is applied.
The Floquet-Bloch periodic boundary condition is imposed
on all pairs of surfaces perpendicular to the plate. The plate
is modeled using the linear elastic equilibrium equation, and
air is modeled using the Helmholtz equation. To account for
(46) the energy loss caused by viscosity and thermal diffusion,
the air in the throat should be regarded as a compressible vis-
cous fluid and should be modeled using the linearized
Navier-Stokes equation and Fourier’s law of thermal conduc-
tion although the thermal loss is generally small compared to
the viscous loss. Viscous loss also arises near the open ends
of the throat. Hence, the air in a semi-sphere of radius 2r1
centered at the openings of the throat is modeled as a com-
pressible viscous fluid. Furthermore, the mass-conservation
law and the state equation for an ideal gas are applied. When
the viscous and the thermal losses are neglected, the air in
the throat is modeled using the Helmholtz equation.
This model is used to simulate Helmholtz resonators
that comprise a throat with 1.0-mm radius and 2.0-mm
length with a back cavity of 7.5-mm radius and 3.5-mm
height, periodically embedded at a period of 20 mm inside a
glass plate of thickness 6 mm. Consequently, this AMP has a
(48)
resonant frequency of 2.1 kHz. Young’s modulus, the loss
factor, Poisson’s ratio, and the mass density of the glass are
71.6 GPa, 0.07, 0.23, and 2500 kg/m3, respectively. The
AMP has the area density of 11.1 kg/m2, which is 26% less
weight compared to the solid glass plate with the same thick-
(49)
ness. For this configuration of the resonator, the lower and
upper frequency bounds are obtained as fLB ¼ 1.1 kHz and
fUB ¼ 11.1 kHz, respectively, for bmin ¼ 0.005. Note that the
mass density of air, 1.2 kg/m3, and the speed of sound in air,
344 m/s, are applied.
Figure 6 plots the STL for the incident elevated angle h
¼ p/4. Red line shows the analytical result for STL for the
215110-7 Takashi Yamamoto
FIG. 6. STL of AMP embedded with a resonator in unit cells.
AMP proposed herein. Black and cyan lines show the numer-
ical results of STL for the incident azimuthal angle / ¼ 0
and / ¼ p/4, respectively. The blue line represents the STL
for a solid flat plate that has the same area density and flex-
ural rigidity as AMP. The AMP is orthotropic within the yz-
plane; however, the numerical STL for / ¼ p/4 is almost
identical with one for / ¼ 0. Thus, the AMP can be almost
isotropic within the yz-plane.
The theoretical result in Fig. 6 agrees well with the
numerical results over the entire frequency range although
small deviation can be found at high frequency range due to
an approximate evaluation of the flexural rigidity of the plate
embedded with resonators by ignoring the hole of the throat.
As can be seen in this figure, AMP exhibits much higher
STL than the conventional solid flat plate around 2 kHz. The
improvement is limited from 1.5 to 2.5 kHz; however, any
drawback is not caused in terms of STL by the Helmholtz
resonators over the entire frequency range of interest up to
FIG. 7. Normalized effective area mass for AMP embedded with a resonator
in unit cell.
J. Appl. Phys. 123, 215110 (2018)
FIG. 8. STL for random incidence.
10 kHz, as is usually the case for membrane acoustic meta-
materials.32,33 Note that a dip of STL observed around 4 kHz
in both AMP and the conventional solid plate is caused by
the coincidence effect that occurs at the coincidence fre-
quency defined by the area mass and the flexural rigidity
alone.
To enhance STL more at 2.1 kHz, the attenuation by vis-
cous loss at the throat of the resonator should be reduced. A
larger radius of the cylindrical throat is one of the possibili-
ties to be designed although longer throat or larger back cav-
ity is required to keep the resonance frequency.
As shown in Fig. 7, the effective dynamic area mass of
AMP in Eq. (29) normalized to the static area mass qs ðhs
b1 L1  h1 Þ reaches approximately 2.5 at the resonance fre-
quency, without any additional mass.
Figure 8 plots the theoretical STL for random incidence
angles obtained by Eq. (27). Gray lines are the STL of AMP
with various incidence angles from 0 to p/2. AMP exhibits
higher STL of around 2 kHz with no more weight than the
conventional solid plate with the same area mass and flexural
rigidity. Moreover, the degradation of STL caused by the
coincidence effect around 2 kHz is nearly eliminated.
Figure 9 depicts the sound pressure and particle velocity
distributions of AMP at 2.1 kHz for the incident angle h ¼ p/4
and / ¼ 0. Acoustic waves radiate from the surface of the
plate to internal parts of the resonator. This corresponds to
acoustic cancellation within a sub-wavelength. Consequently,
the acoustic energy is trapped in the near field around the plate
surface and does not propagate away from the plate.
B. Multiple resonators in unit cell
Using multiple resonators with different resonant fre-
quencies in each unit cell, we attempt to improve the STL
over a wider frequency range. As shown in Fig. 10, four res-
onators are embedded in a unit cell, and the unit cells are
aligned periodically at a period of 40 mm. All resonators
exhibit the same throat length of 2.0 mm and height of the
back cavity of 3.5 mm. The radii of the circular throat and
215110-8 Takashi Yamamoto
the back cavity of one resonator is 1.0 mm and 9.5 mm; one
resonator is 1.0 mm and 5.5 mm, and the others are 1.36 mm
and 9.5 mm, respectively. Consequently, this AMP has three
resonant frequencies, 1.6 kHz, 2.1 kHz, and 2.8 kHz. The
area density of the AMP is 9.77 kg/m2, which is 35% less
weight compared to the solid glass plate with the same thick-
ness. For these configurations of the resonators, the lower
and upper frequency bounds are obtained as fLB ¼ 1.1 kHz
and fUB ¼ 7.0 kHz, respectively, for bmin ¼ 0.005.
Figure 11 compares the STL obtained by theory devel-
oped in this study and STL obtained by numerical calcula-
tion. The incident elevated angle is h ¼ p/4. These two
results agree well over the whole frequency range. This vali-
dates the theoretical solution and ensures the efficiency of
the AMP proposed herein. Three peaks observed in the spec-
trum of STL from 1 kHz to 3 kHz correspond to the resonant
frequencies of the resonators applied in this model.
Moreover, no drawback can be found in the STL compared
to the conventional solid plate.
Figure 12 plots the STL for random incidence from
h ¼ 0 to p/2 utilizing the analytical solutions. The blue solid
FIG. 10. Numerical model of AMP embedded with four resonators in each
unit cell. The dark blue portion is modeled as compressible viscous fluid, the
middle blue portion is an elastic structure, and the light blue portion is air.
J. Appl. Phys. 123, 215110 (2018)
FIG. 9. Sound pressure distribution
and particle velocity vector at 2.1 kHz
for incident angle h ¼ p/4 and / ¼ 0.
line denotes the STL for AMP with one resonator in unit cell
described above. The red solid line corresponds to STL for
AMP with four resonators in each unit cell. As can be seen
in this figure, the AMP with four resonators exhibits a high
STL from 1.0 kHz to 3.2 kHz, and has wider frequency band
than the AMP with single resonator, although STL of the
AMP with four resonators is degraded around 2 kHz due to
the variations of the three different resonant frequencies.
Compared with STL of the conventional solid flat plate that
has the same area density and flexural rigidity as those of
AMP, no drawbacks can be found in STL of the AMP with
four resonators in each unit cell over the entire frequency
range.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
An AMP embedded periodically with small resonators
inside an elastic plate is proposed herein. This plate could
achieve higher STL compared with a solid plate with the
FIG. 11. STL of AMP embedded with four resonators in unit cells for inci-
dence p/4.
215110-9 Takashi Yamamoto
FIG. 12. Comparison of STL for random incidence between a plate with one
resonator and a plate with four resonators in each unit cell. Solid plate A and
B have the same area density and flexural rigidity as AMP with one and four
resonators in each unit cell, respectively.
same area mass and the flexural rigidity. When the resonance
frequency of the resonator is tuned to the coincidence fre-
quency, STL does not drop at the coincidence frequency
owing to acoustic cancellation within the sub-wavelength.
Theoretical STL results agree well with the numerical STL,
which validates the efficiency of the AMP and the accuracy
of the theory developed herein. Further testing of the AMP
using a physical prototype is the scope of future study.
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