Institute of Fundamental Technological Research

An assembly of additively-manufactured modules to form two-dimensional networks of labyrinthine slits results in a sound absorber with extremely high tortuosity and thereby a relatively low frequency quarter wavelength resonance. Fully analytical modelling is developed for the generic design of such composite acoustic panels, allowing rapid exploration of various specific designs. In addition to labyrinthine channels in a non-porous solid skeleton, a case is also considered where the skeleton has microporosity such that its permeability is very much lower than that due to the labyrinthine channels alone. The analytical modelling is verified by numerical calculations, as well as sound absorption measurements performed on several 3D printed samples of modular composite panels. The experimental validation required overcoming the non-trivial difficulties related to additive manufacturing and testing samples of extreme tortuosity. However, due to the two-dimensionality and modularity of the proposed design, such absorbers can possibly be produced without 3D printing by assembling simple, identical modules produced separately. The experimental results fully confirmed the theoretical predictions that significant sound absorption, almost perfect at the peak, can be achieved at relatively low frequencies using very thin panels, especially those with double porosity.

Sound absorption,Extreme tortuosity,Double porosity,Acoustic composites,Additive manufacturing

At first glance, it seems that modern, inexpensive additive manufacturing (AM) technologies can be used to produce innovative, efficient acoustic materials with tailored pore morphology. However, on closer inspection, it becomes rather obvious that for now this is only possible for specific solutions, such as relatively thin, but narrow-band sound absorbers. This is mainly due to the relatively poor resolutions available in low-cost AM technologies and devices, which prevents the 3D-printing of pore networks with characteristic dimensions comparable to those found in conventional broadband sound-absorbing materials. Other drawbacks relate to a number of imperfections associated with AM technologies, including porosity or rather microporosity inherent in some of them. This paper shows how the limitations mentioned above can be alleviated by 3D-printing double-porosity structures, where the main pore network can be designed and optimised, while the properties of the intentionally microporous skeleton provide the desired permeability contrast, leading to additional broadband sound energy dissipation due to pressure diffusion. The beneficial effect of additively manufactured double porosity and the phenomena associated with it are rigorously demonstrated and validated in this work, both experimentally and through precise multi-scale modelling, on a comprehensive example that can serve as benchmark.

double porosity, additive manufacturing, sound absorption, pressure diffusion, multi-scale modelling

The purpose of this work is to check if additive manufacturing technologies are suitable for reproducing porous samples designed for sound absorption. The work is an inter-laboratory test, in which the production of samples and their acoustic measurements are carried out independently by different laboratories, sharing only the same geometry codes describing agreed periodic cellular designs. Different additive manufacturing technologies and equipment are used to make samples. Although most of the results obtained from measurements performed on samples with the same cellular design are very close, it is shown that some discrepancies are due to shape and surface imperfections, or microporosity, induced by the manufacturing process. The proposed periodic cellular designs can be easily reproduced and are suitable for further benchmarking of additive manufacturing techniques for rapid prototyping of acoustic materials and metamaterials.

porous materials, designed periodicity, additive manufacturing, sound absorption

The low frequency peaks in the absorption spectra of layers of conventional porous materials correspond to quarter wavelength resonances and the peak frequencies are determined essentially by layer thickness. If the layer cannot be made thicker, the frequency of the peak can be lowered by increasing the tortuosity of the material. Modern additive manufacturing technologies enable exploration of pore network designs that have high tortuosity. This paper reports analytical models for pore structures consisting of geometrically complex labyrinthine networks of narrow slits resembling Greek meander patterns. These networks offer extremely high tortuosity in a non-porous solid skeleton. However, additional enhancement of the low frequency performance results from exploiting the dual porosity pressure diffusion effect by making the skeleton microporous with a significantly lower permeability than the tortuous network of slits. Analytical predictions are in good agreement with measurements made on two samples with the same tortuous slit pattern, but one has an impermeable skeleton 3D printed from a photopolymer resin and the other has a microporous skeleton 3D printed from a gypsum powder.

sound absorption, high tortuosity, dual porosity, 3D printed materials

This paper shows that specific additive manufacturing (AM) technology can be used to produce double-porosity acoustic materials where main pore networks are designed and a useful type of microporosity is obtained as a side effect of the 3D printing process. Here, the designed main pore network is in the form of annular pores set around the axis of the cylindrical absorber. In this way, the axial symmetry of the problem is ensured if only plane wave propagation under normal incidence is considered, which allows for modelling with purely analytical expressions. Moreover, the outermost annular pore is bounded by the wall of the impedance tube used to measure the sound absorption of the material, so that experimental tests can be easily performed. Two different AM technologies and raw materials were used to fabricate axisymmetric absorbers of the same design, in one case obtaining a material with double porosity, which was confirmed by the results of multi-scale calculations validated with acoustic measurements.

The paper shows that acoustic materials with double porosity can be 3D printed with the appropriate design of the main pore network and the contrasted microporous skeleton. The microporous structure is obtained through the use of appropriate additive manufacturing (AM) technology, raw material, and process parameters. The essential properties of the microporous material obtained in this way are investigated experimentally. Two AM technologies are used to 3D print acoustic samples with the same periodic network of main pores: one provides a microporous skeleton leading to double porosity, while the other provides a single-porosity material. The sound absorption for each acoustic material is determined both experimentally using impedance tube measurements and numerically using a multiscale model. The model combines finite element calculations (on periodic representative elementary volumes) with scaling functions and analytical expressions resulting from homogenization. The obtained double-porosity material is shown to exhibit a strong permeability contrast resulting in a pressure diffusion effect, which fundamentally changes the nature of the sound absorption compared to its single-porosity counterpart with an impermeable skeleton. This work opens up interesting perspectives for the use of popular, low-cost AM technologies to produce efficient sound absorbing materials.

With a rapid development of modern Additive Manufacturing Technologies it seems inevitable that they will sooner or later serve for production of specific porous and meta-porous acoustic treatments. Moreover, these new technologies are already being used to manufacture original micro-geometric designs of sound absorbing media in order to test microstructure-based effects, models and hypothesis. In the view of these statements, this work reports differences in acoustic absorption measured for porous specimens which were produced from the same CAD-geometry model using several additive manufacturing technologies and 3D-printers. A specific periodic unit cell of open porosity was designed for the purpose. The samples were measured acoustically in the impedance tube and also subjected to a thorough microscopic survey in order to check their quality and look for the discrepancy reasons.

Sound absorption, Additive Manufacturing Technologies