Microstructure representations for sound absorbing fibrous media: 3D and 2D multiscale modelling and experiments

The paper proposes and investigates computationally-efficient microstructure representations for sound absorbing fibrous media. Three-dimensional volume elements involving non-trivial periodic arrangements of straight fibres are examined as well as simple two-dimensional cells. It has been found that a simple 2D quasi-representative cell can provide similar predictions as a volume element which is in general much more geometrically accurate for typical fibrous materials. The multiscale modelling allowed to determine the effective speeds and damping of acoustic waves propagating in such media, which brings up a discussion on the correlation between the speed, penetration range and attenuation of sound waves. Original experiments on manufactured copper-wire samples are presented and the microstructure-based calculations of acoustic absorption are compared with the corresponding experimental results. In fact, the comparison suggested the microstructure modifications leading to representations with non-uniformly distributed fibres. •Periodic 3D and 2D representations for sound absorbing fibrous media are proposed.•Fibrous samples are manufactured and used to validate modelling.•An agreement between 3D and 2D representations is demonstrated.•A change in absorption due to a modification of fibre cross-section is predicted.