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Development And Application Of Novel Sound Absorbers, Weiyun Liu

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

The sound absorbers in most common use today are porous materials like fibers and foams. This work examines three alternatives to porous absorbers: microperforated panels, acoustic fabrics, and additively manufactured absorbers. The research is a combination of design, measurement and characterization of their properties, and analysis.

Microperforated panels are thin metallic or plastic panels with sub-millimeter size holes or perforations. Sound absorption can be tuned by adjusting the spacing between the panel and a cavity behind the panel. Several different configurations were considered where the geometry behind the panel was divided up into channels of varying length and cross-sectional area. …