Applied Acoustics 166 (2020) 107348

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Applied Acoustics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apacoust

Sound transmission loss of multi-layered elastic micro-perforated plates

in an impedance tube
Hyun-Sil Kim ⇑, Pyung-Sik Ma, Bong-Ki Kim, Seong-Hyun Lee, Yun-Ho Seo
Acoustics and Noise Research Team, Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials, 156 Gajeongbuk-Ro, Yusung-Gu, Daejeon 34103, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, the sound transmission loss (STL) of multi-layered elastic micro-perforated plates (MPPs) in
Received 14 February 2020 an impedance tube is investigated using the transfer matrix method under the plane wave condition. The
Received in revised form 24 March 2020 number of MPPs can be arbitrary, and each MPP may or may not have a perforation. For numerical exam-
Accepted 27 March 2020
ples, the STLs of single, double and triple MPPs are computed and the accuracy of the proposed method is
Available online 9 April 2020
confirmed by comparisons with the results by the finite element method (FEM). As the micro-perforation
ratio increases, the effect of the micro-perforation becomes much greater than that of plate vibration,
Keywords:
except at natural frequencies. Accordingly, the STL degrades as the micro-perforation ratio increases,
Micro-perforated plate
Sound transmission loss
except at natural frequencies. As the perforation ratio increases, the peak frequency of the STL moves
Multi-layered plates toward a higher frequency. In addition, the imaginary term of the impedance acts as an artificial damping
term such that the amplitude of the peak becomes smaller. For double and triple MPPs, as the perforation
ratio increases, the plate-cavity-plate resonance frequency moves toward a higher frequency, and the dip
at resonance becomes blunt due to artificial damping induced by the micro-perforations. It is also
observed that when frequency approaches zero, the STL becomes bounded only when all micro-
perforation ratios are greater than zero. Otherwise, the STL increases without a limit as the frequency
decreases.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction by Bravo et al. [3], in hybrid silencers with MPPs and internal par-
titions by Yu et al. [4], and in small scale enclosures by Yang and
Micro-perforated panels or plates (MPPs) have received much Cheng [5]. Kang and Brocklesby [6] employed transparent micro-
attention as next-generation sound absorbers. MPPs are usually perforated absorbers in a window system, showing that noise
made of thin metal sheets, plastic, and acryl glass, with many small could be reduced while allowing sufficient ventilation. Tang et al.
holes with typically sub-millimeter diameters. When air flows [7] studied the sound absorption performance of a micro-
through the small diameter of the hole in an MPP, friction arises perforated sandwich panel with a perforated honeycomb-
due to the viscosity of the air, which in turn causes sound absorp- corrugation hybrid core at high temperatures.
tion. MPPs have several advantages compared to conventional Although MPPs have many advantages as sound absorbers, the
sound absorbers such as fibrous or porous materials. MPPs are sound-absorbing bandwidth that can be obtained by a single MPP
clean, environmentally-friendly, resistant to humidity, and light- is limited. To widen the bandwidth, multi-layered MPPs were stud-
weight. Maa [1,2] proposed a very useful approximate impedance ied by Maa [1] for double rigid MPPs, by Min et al. [8] for double
formula for an MPP, and Maa’s formula has been cited in nearly micro-perforated membranes, and by Sakagami et al. [9,10] for
all MPP-related works. the combination of an MPP and a micro-perforated membrane.
As sound-absorbing materials, MPPs have been widely Kim et al. [11] investigated the sound-absorbing performance of
employed in building and architectural acoustics as well as in multi-layered elastic MPPs composed of any combination of thin
many other engineering applications, such as cylindrical silencers elastic plates with or without micro-perforations and rigid MPPs.
under high sound pressure levels and in low-frequency domains Combinations of a non-perforated plate with an MPP, such as those
by Zao and Fan [12] and Zhao et al. [13], have lead to a synergy
effect with regard to sound absorption in which a non-perforated
⇑ Corresponding author. plate provides low-frequency sound absorption with a narrow-
E-mail address: [email protected] (H.-S. Kim).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2020.107348
0003-682X/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 H.-S. Kim et al. / Applied Acoustics 166 (2020) 107348

bandwidth at natural frequencies and an MPP shows wide-band 2. Formulation

sound absorption.
As the thickness of an MPP becomes thin, vibration of the plate 2.1. Theoretical model
may affect the sound-absorbing and insulation performance signif-
icantly. Lee et al. [14] and Lee and Lee [15] considered the sound As shown in Fig. 1, a plane wave AeiðxtkzÞ is incident onto thin
absorption of a finite flexible MPP and solved the coupled equation elastic MPPs installed inside an impedance tube of which the
of a plate vibration and an acoustic wave equation by means of a cross-section is rectangular, L1  L2 . The number of MPPs is N,
modal analysis. Bravo et al. [16–18] studied the effect of a finite and the air cavity depth between the jth and ðj þ 1Þth MPP is qj .
size of flexible micro-perforated structures, specifically with regard When waves propagate through an impedance tube, there exists
to sound absorption and transmission through a single flexible a cut-off frequency above which the waves decay exponentially.
MPP backed by an air layer and a thin plate [16], flexible multi- In this study, we consider only plane waves below the cut-off fre-
layered MPPs [17], and sound absorption by a circular MPP with quency. On the left-side of the first MPP, the reflected wave is gen-
a rigid back wall [18]. Toyoda et al. [19] investigated the relation- erated as
ship between the Helmholtz-resonance and panel-type absorption
in a circular flexible MPP. Kim et al. [11] developed a model for the pr ¼ P r eiðxtþkzÞ ð1Þ
sound absorption of multi-layered elastic MPPs installed in an pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
where Pr represents the amplitude of the reflected wave, i ¼ 1,
impedance tube under the plane wave condition.
x is the angular frequency, k ¼ x=c, and c is the speed of sound
Another effort to widen the bandwidth is the parallel arrange-
in air.
ment of sound-absorbing materials with different properties, such
Inside the ðj  1Þth cavity ðlj2 6 z 6 lj1 Þ, the wave is generated
as two parallel-arranged MPPs with different MPP properties and
as
cavity depths by Yairi et al. [20], a periodic arrangement of two dif-
ferent MPPs by Sakagami et el. [21], and a compound MPP array pj1 ¼ Bj1 eiðxtkzÞ þ C j1 eiðxtþkzÞ ð2Þ
with the series-parallel coupling of different MPPs by Qian et al.
[22]. Kim et al. [23] studied the sound absorption of parallel- Similarly, the wave in the jth cavity ðlj1 6 z 6 lj Þ is generated as
arranged MPPs and discussed the effect of interactions among
pj ¼ Bj eiðxtkzÞ þ C j eiðxtþkzÞ ð3Þ
MPPs.
As compared to the works on the sound absorption by MPPs, On the right-side of the N th MPP, the transmitted wave is given
the number of works on the sound-insulation performance of by
MPPs is very few. Toyoda and Takahashi [24] studied the sound
pN ¼ Pt eiðxtkzÞ ð4Þ
transmission of an infinite two-dimensional MPP and recom-
mended the subdivision of the air gap to improve the transmis- The boundary condition at the surface of the jth MPP is
sion loss at mid-frequencies. Mu et al. [25,26] studied the
1 @p 
sound insulation of double and triple infinite micro-perforated  ¼ v j at z ¼ lj1 ð5Þ
windows and panels, noting that a micro-perforation can improve ixq @z

the sound insulation performance at the mass-spring resonance. where q is the density of air and v j is the average velocity of the jth
Dupont et al. [27] investigated the sound transmission loss MPP, which is related to the plate velocity v j;p and the fluid velocity
(STL) and sound absorption of infinite single and double MPP sys-
v j;f through the hole, as shown in Fig. 1 by
tems, and took measurements using a Kundt tube and reverbera-

tion chambers. v j ¼ v j;p ð1  rj Þ þ v j;f rj ð6Þ
Most works on the STL of MPPs have focused on improving the
2
STL at the mass-spring resonance. Kim et al. [28] discussed in detail In Eq. (6), rj is the perforation ratio defined as rj ¼ p dj =4U 2j ,
how a micro-perforation affects the STL of multi-layered MPPs where dj represents the diameter of the hole and U j is the distance
throughout the entire frequency using the transfer matrix method, between the holes of the jth MPP. The impedance of the jth MPP is
explaining the effect of the micro-perforation in terms of the related to the pressure difference according to [29]
equivalent impedance, i.e., a combination of the impedances corre-
Z j;resist ðv j;f  v j;p Þ þ Z j;react v j;f ¼ Dpj ¼ pj1  pj ð7Þ
sponding to the inertia term and the micro-perforation.
In the present paper, the STL of multi-layered elastic MPPs where the pressure difference Dpj is given by
installed in an impedance tube with a rectangular cross-section
is studied using the transfer matrix method. The proposed model Dpj ¼ Bj1 eiklj1 þ C j1 eiklj1  Bj eiklj1  C j eiklj1 ð8Þ
allows for the number of the MPPs to be arbitrary, with each The impedance of the hole, Z j ¼ Z j;resist þ Z j;react , is given by [1,2]
MPP either perforated or not. Under the plane wave condition, a 0sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffi 1
low-frequency solution is analytically derived and the accuracy 8g0 hj @ X 2j 2dj X j A
of the proposed method is confirmed by comparisons with the Z j;resist ¼ 2
1þ þ ð9Þ
ðdj =2Þ 32 32hj
results from the finite element method (FEM). The effects of the
micro-perforation ratio on the STL are discussed in detail, including 0 1
the behaviors of the peak, dip and the plate-cavity-plate resonance
B 1 8dj C
¼ iqxhj @1 þ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi þ ð10Þ
phj A
frequencies. The proposed method employs an approximated Z j;react
9 þ X j =2 2 3
mode expression for a clamped boundary condition. Although the
simply supported boundary condition is convenient to handle ana-
lytically, it hardly represents the real conditions, and the clamped where g0 denotes the viscosity coefficient of air, hj is the thickness
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
boundary condition is more realistic in many engineering applica- qx=g0 . Eliminating v j;f from Eqs. (6)
of the jth MPP, and X j ¼ ðdj =2Þ
tions. Our study can provide a useful prediction method for the STL and (7) yields
of multi-layered rectangular MPPs with clamped boundary condi-  rj Dpj
tions for a low-frequency range. v j ¼ cj v j;p þ ð11Þ
Zj
 H.-S. Kim et al. / Applied Acoustics 166 (2020) 107348 3

Fig. 1. Incidence of a plane wave onto multi-layered elastic MPPs in an impedance tube with a rectangular cross-section L1  L2. The number of MPPs is N.

  
in which cj ¼ 1  rj ðZ j;react =Z j Þ. am x am x
um ðxÞ ¼ cosh  cos
From Eq. (5), the coefficients Bj1 , C j1 , Bj , and C j in Eqs. (2) and L1 L1
    
(3) satisfy the following relationship: am x am x
 dm sinh  sin ð16Þ
Bj1 eiklj1 þ C j1 eiklj1 ¼ Bj eiklj1 þ C j eiklj1 at z ¼ lj1 ð12Þ L1 L1
in which the parameters am and dm are available in the literature
nj eixt (v j;p ¼ ixnj ), the
If the displacement of the jth MPP is nj ¼ ^
[31], and un ðyÞ is defined in the same manner using an , dn and L2 .
governing equation after the omission of the common term eixt is Substituting Eqs. (2) and (15) into Eq. (11) and integrating the
given by expression over the surface of the MPP results in
 
Dj r4 nj  M j x2 nj ¼ Dpj ð13Þ 1 X1 X 1
rj
½Bj1 eiklj1  C j1 eiklj1  ¼ ixcj aj;mn J m J n þ Dpj ð17Þ
3
qc m¼1 n¼1
Zj
where Dj ¼ Ej hj =12ð1  m2j Þ, Mj ¼ qpj hj , and Ej ; mj ; qpj denote the
Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio and density of the jth MPP, where
respectively. In Eq. (13), structural damping is considered by intro- ZL1 ZL2
ducing a complex Young’s modulus Eð1 þ igÞ, where g is the loss 1 1
Jm ¼ um ðxÞdx; Jn ¼ un ðyÞdy ð18Þ
factor. L1 L2
0 0
We assume that the MPPs are clamped at the boundaries.
Unlike a simply supported plate, the displacement cannot be Multiplying both sides of Eq. (13) by um0 ðxÞun0 ðyÞ and integrat-
expressed as the product of the beam mode. In general, displace- ing the expression over the surface of the MPP with the use of the
ments are given by [30,31] orthogonal property of the modes leads to
 X
1
Mj Y m Y n ðx2j;mn  x2 Þaj;mn ¼ ½Bj1 eiklj1 þ C j1 eiklj1  Bj eiklj1
nj ðx; yÞ ¼ aj;k Uj;k ðx; yÞ ð14Þ
k¼1  C j eiklj1 J m Jn ð19Þ
where Uj;k ðx; yÞ is the kth mode of the jth MPP. Although no closed where
form of Uj;k ðx; yÞ for a clamped plate exists, approximate solutions
are available for the first few modes [30–32]. In this study, we ZL1 ZL2
1 1
assume that Eq. (14) can be approximated as Ym ¼ u2m ðxÞdx; Y n ¼ u2n ðyÞdy ð20Þ
L1 L2
X
1 X
1 0 0
^nj ðx; yÞ  aj; m n um ðxÞun ðyÞ ð15Þ Note that J m and Y m are independent of L1 . In the literature [32],
m¼1 n¼1
the values of J m and Y m for m = 1, 3, and 5 are listed.
where um ðxÞ is the mth mode of the clamped beam vibration, After substituting aj;mn from Eq. (19) and Dpi in Eq. (8) into Eq.
defined as (17), Eq. (17) can be rewritten as
4 H.-S. Kim et al. / Applied Acoustics 166 (2020) 107348

Bj1 eiklj1 ð1  K j Þ  C j1 eiklj1 ð1 þ K j Þ

¼ K j ðBj eiklj1 þ C j eiklj1 Þ ð21Þ

where

K j ¼ cj bj þ qcrj =Z j ð22Þ

X
1 X
1
iq cxðJ m J n Þ2
bj ¼ ð23Þ
m¼1 n¼1
M j Y m Y n ðx2mn  x2 Þ

Eqs. (12) and (21) can be rewritten in a matrix form [28]:

X0 ¼ C1 C2    CN XN ð24Þ

where
" #
1 2K j þ 1 e2iklj1
Cj ¼ ð25Þ
2K j e2iklj1 2K j  1

Fig. 2. Comparison of the computed STLs and the results by the FEM for single,
and XTj ¼ ðBj ; C j Þ.
double and triple MPPs. The MPP parameters are r1 = r2 = r3 = 0.05%, h1 = 1 mm,
For the first MPP (j ¼ 1) at z ¼ l0 ¼ 0 , XT0 ¼ ðA; P r Þ, and for the h2 = 1.5 mm, h3 = 2.0 mm, and d1 = d2 = d3 = 0.8 mm. The cavity depths are
q1 = q2 = 30 mm. The lines with symbols denote the STLs by the FEM.
last MPP (j ¼ N) at z ¼ lN1 , XTN ¼ ðPt ; 0Þ. Recall that A is the ampli-
tude of the incident wave.
Matrix Eq. (24) can be rewritten in a compact form as
    
A G11 G12 Pt
¼ ð26Þ
Pr G21 G22 0
From Eq. (26), Pr =A and P t =A are determined as

Pt 1 Pr G21
¼ ; ¼ ð27Þ
A G11 A G11
The transmission coefficient s and the STL are defined as
2
s ¼ jPt =Aj ð28Þ

STL ¼ 10logð1=sÞ ð29Þ

When the last MPP is rigid without a micro-perforation, the
problem is reduced to the sound absorption of multi-layered MPPs
and the sound absorption coefficient is defined as [11]

a ¼ 1  jP r =Aj2 ð30Þ
In this study, we consider the STL of MPPs made of aluminum Fig. 3. The amplitudes |Z1| and |b1| when h1 = 1.0 mm and d1 = 0.8 mm.
plates whose material properties are qp = 2700 kg/m3,
10
E ¼ 7:2  10 Pa, and m ¼ 0:34, with the loss factor assumed to be
g ¼ 0:01. The cross-section of the impedance tube is rectangular,
2.2. STL of a single MPP
0.26 m  0.21 m, and the corresponding cut-off frequency is
660 Hz. In the summation in Eq. (23), modes from (1, 1) to
For a single MPP, the transmission coefficient is determined as
(11, 11) are included, which is sufficient to ensure convergence
2
below 600 Hz. Because only the symmetric modes are excited by 1
the plane incident wave, asymmetric modes such as (1, 2), (2, 2), s¼ ð31Þ
1 þ 1=ð2K 1 Þ
(2, 1),. . . are excluded in Eq. (23). The properties of air are
q ¼ 1:2 kg=m3 and c ¼ 343 m=s, and the viscosity is In Fig. 3, jZ 1 j and jb1 j are plotted. It is found that jb1 j shows
6 peaks at the natural frequencies, 173 Hz corresponding to the
g0 ¼ 17:9  10 kg=ms.
(1, 1) mode and 522 Hz corresponding to the (3, 1) mode. In all Fig-
In Fig. 2, the STLs by Eq. (29) are compared to the results by the
ures hereafter, the plate thickness is h = 1 mm unless specified
FEM for single, double and triple MPPs when the perforation ratio
otherwise and the hole diameter is d = 0.8 mm. The dip at
of all MPPs is 0.05%. The plate thicknesses are h1 = 1 mm,
477 Hz in jb1 j is determined from the condition b1 ¼ 0. When the
h2 = 1.5 mm, and h3 = 2.0 mm and the hole diameter is d1 = d2 =
STL in the low-frequency range is of interest, inclusion of the first
d3 = 0.8 mm. The single, double and triple MPPs consist of plate
few modes in Eq. (23) provides a good approximate solution, and at
1, plate 1 + plate 2, and plate 1 + plate 2 + plate 3, respectively,
least two modes are needed to predict the first peak in the STL, as
and the cavity depths are q1 = q2 = 30 mm. In Fig. 2, the lines with-
discussed in the literature [32]. If the two lowest natural frequen-
out symbols denote the prediction by Eq. (29) and the lines with
cies x11 and x31 are included in Eq. (23), b1 becomes
symbols represent the results by the FEM, where the FEM code " #
used in this study is COMSOL [33]. The comparisons show excellent iq cxJ 21 J21 J 23
agreement except the peaks near 500 Hz due to the approximated b1 ¼ þ ð32Þ
M1 Y 1 Y 1 ðx211  x2 Þ Y 3 ðx231  x2 Þ
clamped modes in Eq. (15).
 H.-S. Kim et al. / Applied Acoustics 166 (2020) 107348 5

qcJ41
where Q 1 ¼ M 2 2 and Q 2 ¼ 32g qhc =d2 . As observed in Fig. 5, the STL
1 Y 1 x11 0 1 1

for r1 ¼ 0 increases as the frequency approaches zero. However,

when r1 > 0, the STL becomes bounded according to Eq. (35) as
the frequency decreases. It is also found that when r1 > 0, the
STL shows a peak below the first natural frequency x11 , in which
the peak frequency is determined from the condition dK 1 =dx ¼ 0.
In addition, it should be noted that as the perforation ratio
increases, the peak moves toward a higher frequency and the
amplitude of the peak decreases simultaneously.
At the natural frequency x ¼ xmn , K 1 becomes very large as
expected from Eqs. (22) and (23). Accordingly, the STL shows dips
regardless of the micro-perforation ratio at the natural frequencies.
On the other hand, when K 1 becomes zero or is very small, the STL
shows peaks. When 0 < r1 << 1, the peak frequency xp;MPP can be
approximated as

x2p;MPP  x2p þ e ð36Þ

Fig. 4. The ratio |qcr1/(Z1k1b1)| vs. the perforation ratio when h1 = 1.0 mm and where xp is the peak frequency when r1 ¼ 0, as given in Eq. (33),
d1 = 0.8 mm. and e represents the deviation due to r1 . After substituting Eq.
(36) into K 1 ¼ 0 and rearranging the result, e is determined as
2
ir1 M 1 J 23 Y 31 Y 23 ðx211  x231 Þ
e¼ þ Oðr21 Þ ð37Þ
c1 Z 1 xp ðJ2 Y 1 þ J2 Y 3 Þ3
3 1

Note that e is proportional to r1 , and the real part of e is greater

than zero. Accordingly, when r1 increases, the peak frequency
xp;MPP moves toward a higher frequency. In addition, the imaginary
term of e acts as a damping term. At the peak frequency, after sub-
stitution of Eqs. (36) and (37) into Eq. (31) and with some mathe-
matical manipulation, the STL becomes

STL  10logð1=r21 Þ þ constant ð38Þ

Accordingly, as r1 increases, the STL at the peak frequency
decreases with a slope of 20logðr1 Þ.

2.3. Double MPPs

When there are two MPPs with air gap depth q1 , the transmit-
ted and reflected waves in Eq. (27) are determined as

Fig. 5. STL of a single MPP vs. the perforation ratio. The MPP parameters are Pt 4K 1 K 2 e2ikq1
¼ ð39Þ
h1 = 1.0 mm and d1 = 0.8 mm. A ð2K 1 þ 1Þð2K 2 þ 1Þe2ikq1  1

The frequency xp satisfying the condition b1 ¼ 0 is determined

as

x2p ¼ ðJ23 Y 1 x211 þ J21 Y 3 x231 Þ=ðJ23 Y 1 þ J21 Y 3 Þ ð33Þ

In Fig. 4, the ratio jqcr1 =ðZ 1 k1 b1 Þj is plotted for various values of

the perforation ratio ranging from 0.01% to 0.5%. It is observed that
as the micro-perforation ratio increases, the effect of the micro-
perforation becomes much greater than that of the plate vibration
except at the natural frequencies. Fig. 5 shows the STL of a single
MPP using Eq. (31) when r1 varies from 0.0% to 0.2%. Eq. (31)
can be rewritten as
2
1
STL ¼ 10log 1 þ ð34Þ
2c1 b1 ð1 þ qcr1 =Z 1 c1 b1 Þ
As shown in Fig. 4, the ratio jqcr1 =ðZ 1 k1 b1 Þj increases as r1
increases. Accordingly, the STL is degraded as r1 increases, except
at the natural frequencies. When x approaches zero, the transmis-
sion coefficient can be approximated as
1 1
 ð35Þ
s 4ðQ 21 x þ Q 22 r21 Þ
2 Fig. 6. STL of double MPPs for various perforation ratios when r1 = r2. The MPP
parameters are h1 = h2 = 1.0 mm, d1 = d2 = 0.8 mm, and q1 = 30 mm.
6 H.-S. Kim et al. / Applied Acoustics 166 (2020) 107348

Given that 2qc=kq1 >> ðZ 1;react =iÞ, the real part of e is greater
than zero and the imaginary term of e acts as a damping term such
that the dip becomes blunt and moves toward a higher frequency
as r1 increases. Also note that the STL has a peak at xp;MPP defined
in Eq. (36), and the peak shows a similar behavior to that of the sin-
gle MPP as shown in Fig. 5, as the perforation ratio increases. In
Fig. 7, it is observed that when x approaches zero, the STL becomes
bounded only when both r1 and r2 are greater than zero. Other-
wise, the STL increases as x decreases. For instance, when r1 ¼ 0
and r2 > 0, the transmission coefficient as x approaches zero
can be approximated as
2
1 1 Z2 q
 þ ð1 þ 1 Þ ð47Þ
s 2iQ 1 x 2qcr2 cQ 1

where Q 1 is defined in Eq. (35). Accordingly, the STL increases with-

out a limit as x approaches zero.
When MPP 1 is not identical to MPP 2 and kq1 << 1, the dip fre-
Fig. 7. STL of double MPPs for various perforation ratios when r1 – r2. The other quency xd;MPP is determined from
MPP parameters are identical to those in Fig. 7.
K 1 þ K 2 þ ikq1 ¼ 0 ð48Þ
When r1 ¼ r2 ¼ 0, Eq. (48) including only the first mode in
Pr ð2K 2 þ 1Þe2ikq1 þ ð2K 1  1Þ MPP 1 and 2 becomes a quadratic equation for x2 , as shown in
¼ ð40Þ
A ð2K 1 þ 1Þð2K 2 þ 1Þe2ikq1  1 the literature [32]

The transmission coefficient is given by q1 V x4  ½ðM1 þ M2 Þ þ q1 Vðx211 þ X211 Þx2

1 1 1 e2ikq1
2
þ ½M 1 x211 þ M 2 X211 þ q1 V x211 X211  ¼ 0 ð49Þ
¼ ð1 þ Þð1 þ Þ ð41Þ
s 2K 1 2K 2 4K 1 K 2
where V ¼ M1 M2 Y 21 =qc2 J 41 . The solutions of Eq. (49) when neglecting
When kq1 << 1, the STL becomes the higher order terms of q1 are
2
1 1 ikq1 2
STL  10log 1 þ þ þ ð42Þ ðM1 x211 þ M 2 X211 Þ M2 M 2 Y 2 ðx211  X211 Þ
2K 1 2K 2 2K 1 K 2 x21   q1 1 24 1 ð50Þ
ðM 1 þ M 2 Þ qc2 J1 ðM1 þ M2 Þ3
In Figs. 6 and 7, the STLs using Eq. (39) are plotted for various
values of the perforation ratio, where the thicknesses and hole
1 ðM1 þ M2 Þq c2 J 41 ðM1 X211 þ M 2 x211 Þ
diameters of the two MPPs are correspondingly h1 = h2 = 1 mm x22  þ ð51Þ
q1 M 1 M 2 Y 21 ðM 1 þ M 2 Þ
and d1 = d2 = 0.8 mm, and the cavity depth is 30 mm. In Fig. 6,
the micro-perforation ratios of the two MPPs are identical: The second solution x2 represents the plate-cavity-plate reso-
r1 = r2 = 0.0%, 0.02%, 0.05%, 0.1% and 0.2%. In Fig. 7, on the other nance and is reduced to Eq. (43) when h1 ¼ h2 . In Fig. 8, the STLs
hand, (r1,r2) = (0.0%, 0.0%), (0.0%, 0.05%), (0.0%, 0.1%) and (0.05%, when h1 = 0.8 mm, h2 = 1.0 mm, d1 = d2 = 0.8 mm and
0.05%). Similar to the case of the single MPP shown in Fig. 5, the q1 = 30 mm are shown for three different perforation ratios of
STLs are degraded as the micro-perforation ratios increase and r1 = r2 = 0.0%, 0.02% and 0.05%. Note that when r1 = r2 = 0.0%,
show dips at the natural frequencies of x11 (f11 = 173 Hz) and the dip frequencies x1 and x2 are determined by Eqs. (50)
x31 (f31 = 522 Hz). In addition, the STL when r1 ¼ 0 shows a dip and (51).
at xd (fd = 263 Hz), which represents the plate-cavity-plate reso-
nance. When r1 ¼ 0 and kq1 << 1, the dip frequency xd is deter-
mined as [32]

2qc2 J 41
x2d ¼ þ x211 ð43Þ
q1 M 1 Y 21
When 0 < r1 << 1 and kq1 << 1, the dip frequency xd;MPP for
double MPPs, where two MPPs are identical, can be approximated
as

2qc2 J 41
x2d;MPP  ð1 þ eÞ þ x211 ð44Þ
q1 M 1 Y 21
where e is the deviation due to r1 . Substituting Eq. (44) into K 1
in Eq. (22) yields
ixq1 c1 q c r1
K1 ¼  ð1  eÞ þ þ Oðe2 Þ ð45Þ
2c Z1
From the condition 2K 1 þ ikq1 ¼ 0, e is determined as
 
ir Z 2qc
e ¼ 1  1;react þ þ Oðr21 Þ ð46Þ Fig. 8. STL of double MPPs when h1 = 0.8 mm, h2 = 1.0 mm, d1 = d2 = 0.8 mm, and
Z1 i kq1 q1 = 30 mm.
 H.-S. Kim et al. / Applied Acoustics 166 (2020) 107348 7

2
2.4. Triple MPPs 1 1 3 1 1 2ikq 1 1 4ikq
¼ ð1 þ Þ  2 ð1 þ Þe  2 ð1  Þe ð55Þ
s 2K 1 2K 1 2K 1 4K 1 2K 1
For triple MPPs with air gaps q1 and q2 , the transmitted and
reflected waves in Eq. (27) become In Fig. 9, the STLs of the single-, double- and triple-layered
Pt 8K 1 K 2 K 3 e 2ið/1 þ/2 Þ plates with no micro-perforations are compared. The thicknesses
¼ ð52Þ of all MPPs are h = 1 mm, and the cavity depths are 30 mm. Similar
A D
to Figs. 6 and 7, the STLs show dips at the natural frequencies of
Pr 1 x11 and x31 and a peak at xp as expressed in Eq. (33). Note that
¼ ð2K 2 þ 1Þð2K 3 þ 1Þe2ið/1 þ/2 Þ  e2i/1 þð2K 3 þ 1Þð2K 1  1Þe2i/2 the dip frequencies corresponding to the plate-cavity-plate reso-
A D
þ ð2K 1  1Þð2K 2  1Þ ð53Þ nance change as the number of MPPs increases. When kq1 << 1,
the STL in Eq. (55) is simplified as
where /1 ¼ kq1 and /2 ¼ kq2 , and
2
3 4ikq1
D ¼ ð2K 1 þ 1Þð2K 2 þ 1Þð2K 3 þ 1Þe2ið/1 þ/2 Þ  ð2K 1 þ 1Þe2i/1 STL  10log 1 þ ð1 þ Þ ð56Þ
2K 1 3K 1
 ð2K 3 þ 1Þe 2i/2
 ð2K 2  1Þ ð54Þ
Accordingly, the STL shows dips when 1=K 1 ¼ 0 or
When K 3 ¼ 0, the problem is reduced to the sound absorption of 1 þ 4ikq1 =3K 1 ¼ 0. The first condition corresponds to x ¼ xmn
the double MPPs with cavity depths q1 and q2 , as derived in an ear- and the latter represents the plate-cavity-plate resonance condi-
lier study [11]. tion, where the dip frequency is determined as
When three MPPs are identical and the air gaps are also identi-
cal, i.e., q1 ¼ q2 , 1=s becomes 3qc2 J 41
x2d ¼ þ x211 ð57Þ
4q1 M 1 Y 21
In Fig. 10, the STLs using Eq. (52) are plotted for various values
of the perforation ratio, where the corresponding thicknesses and
hole diameters of the three MPPs are h1 = h2 = h3 = 1 mm and d1-
= d2 = d3 = 0.8 mm, and the cavity depths are q1 = q2 = 30 mm. The
micro-perforation ratios of the three MPPs are identical:
r1 = r2 = r3 = 0.0%, 0.02%, 0.05%, 0.1% and 0.2%. Similar to single
and double MPPs, the STLs are degraded as the micro-perforation
ratio increases, except at the natural frequencies. As observed in
the STLs of the double MPPs shown in Figs. 6 and 7, the plate-
cavity-plate resonance frequency becomes blunt and moves
toward a higher frequency as the perforation ratio increases.

3. Conclusions

The STL of multi-layered elastic MPPs in an impedance tube was

derived using the transfer matrix method under the plane wave
condition. The number of MPPs can be arbitrary, and each MPP
may or may not have a perforation. For numerical examples, the
STLs of single, double and triple MPPs were computed and the
Fig. 9. STLs of single-, double- and triple-layered plates with no micro-perforations. accuracy of the proposed method was confirmed by comparisons
The thicknesses of all MPPs are h = 1 mm and the cavity depths are 30 mm. with the results by the FEM. It was observed that as the micro-
perforation ratio increases, the effect of the micro-perforation
becomes much greater than that of the plate vibration, except at
the natural frequencies. Accordingly, the STL is degraded as the
micro-perforation ratio increases, except at the natural frequen-
cies. As the perforation ratio increases, the peak frequency moves
toward a higher frequency. In addition, imaginary term of the
impedance acts as an artificial damping term such that the ampli-
tude of the peak becomes smaller.
For double and triple MPPs, there exist plate-cavity-plate reso-
nances. As the perforation ratios increase, the resonance frequency
moves toward a higher frequency, and the dip at the resonance fre-
quency becomes blunt due to the artificial damping induced by the
micro-perforations. It was found that when the frequency
approaches zero, the STL becomes bounded only when all micro-
perforation ratios are greater than zero. Otherwise, the STL
increases without a limit as the frequency decreases.

Declaration of Competing Interest

Fig. 10. STL of triple MPPs for various perforation ratios. The thicknesses and hole
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
diameters of the MPPs are h1 = h2 = h3 = 1 mm and d1 = d2 = d3 = 0.8 mm, cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
respectively, and the cavity depths are q1 = q2 = 30 mm. to influence the work reported in this paper.
8 H.-S. Kim et al. / Applied Acoustics 166 (2020) 107348

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