Sound Absorption by Acoustic Microlattice with Optimized Pore Configuration

Abstract: Sound absorption or dissipation principally involves joint interactions between sound waves, material morphology and the air medium. How these elements work most efficiently for sound absorption remains elusive to date. In this paper, we suggest a fundamental relation concisely cross-linking the three elements, which reveals that optimal sound absorption efficiency occurs when the pore size of the material is twice the thickness of the viscous boundary layer of the acoustic air medium. The study is validated by microlattice materials comprising of well-controlled regular structures that absorb sound in a tunable manner. Optimized material morphology in terms of pore size and porosity is determined to provide a robust guidance for optimizing sound absorbing materials.