Broaden the sound absorption band by using micro-perforated plate back cavities with different cross-sectional areas

Abstract In finite size micro-perforated plate structure, the cross-sectional area size of back cavity will affect the resonant frequency of structure. Based on transfer matrix and the characteristics of acoustic propagation in variable cross-section channel, the sound absorption characteristics of the double-layer micro-perforated plate structure with variable cross-section back cavity are studied and analyzed, and a theoretical analysis model of the variable cross-section back cavity micro-perforated plate structure is established. By comparing the theoretical model with the finite element model, the effect of abrupt changes in the cross-sectional area of the back cavity on the noise reduction performance is obtained. As for the double-layer micro-perforated plate in this paper, the bigger the cross-sectional area of back cavity of inner micro-perforated plate, the lower the frequency of first peak absorption coefficient of structure will be and the higher the frequency corresponding to second absorption coefficient peak of structure. Utilizing this feature, a combined micro-perforated plate structure is designed, which has back cavities with different inner cross-sectional areas, and ultimately broadening the structural sound absorption band. Additionally, through using 3D printing technology to produce samples and conducting experimental tests in the impedance tube. Experiments show that the structure can achieve an absorption coefficient of more than 0.8 within the frequency range of 500–1650 Hz, which further improving the noise reduction performance of the MPP structure. The feasibility of variable-sectional back cavity structure for the design of low-frequency and broadband noise reduction absorber is verified.