Effect of the three-dimensional microstructure on the sound absorption of foams: A parametric study.

The purpose of this work is to systematically study the effect of the throat and the pore sizes on the sound absorbing properties of open-cell foams. The three-dimensional idealized unit cell used in this work enables to mimic the acoustical macro-behavior of a large class of cellular solid foams. This study is carried out for a normal incidence and also for a diffuse field excitation, with a relatively large range of sample thicknesses. The transport and sound absorbing properties are numerically studied as a function of the throat size, the pore size, and the sample thickness. The resulting diagrams show the ranges of the specific throat sizes and pore sizes where the sound absorption grading is maximized due to the pore morphology as a function of the sample thickness, and how it correlates with the corresponding transport parameters. These charts demonstrate, together with typical examples, how the morphological characteristics of foam could be modified in order to increase the visco-thermal dissipation effects.

Measurement of the low-wavenumber component within a turbulent wall pressure by an inverse problem of vibration.

An experimental validation is implemented for the measurement of a weak acoustic component within a turbulent wall pressure by an inverse problem of vibration. The turbulent flow is generated by a forward-facing step in a wind tunnel. In addition to the flow, an acoustic source with a low level excites the plate and plays the role of an additional acoustic component to be identified. The inverse methods called the force analysis technique and the corrected force analysis technique are used to compute the wall pressure fluctuations from the measurement of the plate vibration using an array of 13 accelerometers. The results show that contrary to the conventional techniques using pressure sensors, the inverse methods have a very good signal-to-noise ratio at the low wavenumbers. Indeed, the plate vibration is much more sensitive to the acoustic component than to the aerodynamic part. Moreover, this study shows that both methods can be used to isolate the weak acoustic part and identify its frequency spectrum.

On the modeling of visco-thermal dissipations in heterogeneous porous media.

Based on a modified equivalent fluid model, the present work proposes a composite model which analytically includes the shape of the inclusions, whether they are porous or not. This model enables to describe the acoustic behavior of a large range of media from perforated plates to arbitrarily shaped porous composites including configurations of porous inclusions in solid matrix or double porosity media. In addition, possible permeability interactions between the substrate material and the inclusions are accounted for.

A direct link between microstructure and acoustical macro-behavior of real double porosity foams.

The acoustical macro-behavior of mineral open-cell foam samples is modeled from microstructure morphology using a three-dimensional idealized periodic unit-cell (3D-PUC). The 3D-PUC is based on a regular arrangement of spheres allowed to interpenetrate during the foaming process. Identification and sizing of the 3D-PUC is made from x-ray computed microtomography and manufacturing process information. In addition, the 3D-PUC used allows to account for two scales of porosity: The interconnected network of bubbles (meso-porosity) and the inter-crystalline porosity of a gypsum matrix (micro-porosity). Transport properties of the micro- and the meso-scales are calculated from first principles, and a hybrid micro-macro method is used to determine the frequency-dependent visco-thermal dissipation properties. Olny and Boutin found that the double porosity theory provides the visco-thermal coupling between the meso- and micro-scales [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 114, 73-89 (2003)]. Finally, the results are successfully compared with experiments for two different mineral foam samples. The main originality of this work is to maintain a direct link between the microstructure morphology and the acoustical macro-behavior all along the multi-scale modeling process, without any adjusted parameter.

Microstructure based model for sound absorption predictions of perforated closed-cell metallic foams.

Closed-cell metallic foams are known for their rigidity, lightness, thermal conductivity as well as their low production cost compared to open-cell metallic foams. However, they are also poor sound absorbers. Similarly to a rigid solid, a method to enhance their sound absorption is to perforate them. This method has shown good preliminary results but has not yet been analyzed from a microstructure point of view. The objective of this work is to better understand how perforations interact with closed-cell foam microstructure and how it modifies the sound absorption of the foam. A simple two-dimensional microstructural model of the perforated closed-cell metallic foam is presented and numerically solved. A rough three-dimensional conversion of the two-dimensional results is proposed. The results obtained with the calculation method show that the perforated closed-cell foam behaves similarly to a perforated solid; however, its sound absorption is modulated by the foam microstructure, and most particularly by the diameters of both perforation and pore. A comparison with measurements demonstrates that the proposed calculation method yields realistic trends. Some design guides are also proposed.

Bottom-up approach for microstructure optimization of sound absorbing materials.

Results from a numerical study examining micro-/macrorelations linking local geometry parameters to sound absorption properties are presented. For a hexagonal structure of solid fibers, the porosity phi, the thermal characteristic length Lambda('), the static viscous permeability k(0), the tortuosity alpha(infinity), the viscous characteristic length Lambda, and the sound absorption coefficient are computed. Numerical solutions of the steady Stokes and electrical equations are employed to provide k(0), alpha(infinity), and Lambda. Hybrid estimates based on direct numerical evaluation of phi, Lambda('), k(0), alpha(infinity), Lambda, and the analytical model derived by Johnson, Allard, and Champoux are used to relate varying (i) throat size, (ii) pore size, and (iii) fibers' cross-section shapes to the sound absorption spectrum. The result of this paper tends to demonstrate the important effect of throat size in the sound absorption level, cell size in the sound absorption frequency selectivity, and fibers' cross-section shape in the porous material weight reduction. In a hexagonal porous structure with solid fibers, the sound absorption level will tend to be maximized with a 48+/-10 microm throat size corresponding to an intermediate resistivity, a 13+/-8 microm fiber radius associated with relatively small interfiber distances, and convex triangular cross-section shape fibers allowing weight reduction.

On the dynamic viscous permeability tensor symmetry.

Based on a direct generalization of a proof given by Torquato for symmetry property in static regime, this express letter clarifies the reasons why the dynamic permeability tensor is symmetric for spatially periodic structures having symmetrical axes which do not coincide with orthogonal pairs being perpendicular to the axis of three-, four-, and sixfold symmetry. This somewhat nonintuitive property is illustrated by providing detailed numerical examples for a hexagonal lattice of solid cylinders in the asymptotic and frequency dependent regimes. It may be practically useful for numerical implementation validation and/or convergence assessment.