Aperiodic Two-Dimensional Acoustic Black Holes for Broadband Vibration Attenuation in a Strip

Purpose Acoustic black holes (ABHs) are promising for vibration control in lightweight structures as proven for one- or two-dimensional periodic arrangements. Here, we explored the effects of spatial disorder and heterogeneous designs of ABHs to broaden an intrinsically limited attenuation bandwidth of periodic counterparts. Method We proposed several strategies to introduce non-periodic arrangements and/or different ABH profiles by solving a maximization problem for the attenuation bandwidth of a plate strip decorated by five ABHs. These strategies allow for finding appropriate dimensions and positions of the ABHs by analyzing a small design subset and are verified experimentally. Results The identified periodic heterogeneous ABHs enable greatly extending the attenuation bandwidth, while disordered identical ABHs allow for increasing the attenuation intensity as compared to the corresponding periodic configurations. The mechanisms underlying the wave attenuation enhancement were clarified by tracing the evolution of the wave transmission and structural vibration modes at each design step. We have found that the broadened wave attenuation attributes to the activation of strongly localized modes at broadband frequencies in aperiodic scenarios. These abundant modes are multi-frequency local resonances in ABHs that are sensitive to both the ABH profile and their spatial arrangement. Conclusion We prove that relaxing the periodicity requirement on multiple two-dimensional ABHs can extend the vibration attenuation to broadband regimes below the ABH characteristic frequency, numerically and experimentally. Aperiodic designs of ABHs thus enlarge the design space by enabling a broadband wave mitigation with attenuation intensity comparable to that of periodic counterparts without increasing the structural mass.