Multi-cavity coupling acoustic metamaterials with low-frequency broad band gaps based on negative mass density

This paper studies a novel kind of low-frequency broadband acoustic metamaterials with small size based on the mechanisms of negative mass density and multi-cavity coupling. The structure consists of a closed resonant cavity and an open resonant cavity, which can be equivalent to a homogeneous medium with effective negative mass density in a certain frequency range by using the parameter inversion method. The negative mass density makes the anti-resonance area increased, which results in broadened band gaps greatly. Owing to the multi-cavity coupling mechanism, the local resonances of the lower frequency mainly occur in the closed cavity, while the local resonances of the higher frequency mainly in the open cavity. Upon the interaction between the negative mass density and the multi-cavity coupling, there exists two broad band gaps in the range of 0–1800 Hz, i.e. the first-order band gap from 195 Hz to 660 Hz with the bandwidth of 465 Hz and the second-order band gap from 1157 Hz to 1663 Hz with the bandwidth of 506 Hz. The acoustic metamaterials with small size presented in this paper could provide a new approach to reduce the low-frequency broadband noises.