Numerical and experimental study of the effect of microslits on the normal absorption of structural metamaterials

Resonant metamaterials are emerging as novel concepts to reduce noise levels in targeted frequency zones, so-called stop bands. The metamaterial concept improves acoustic behaviour through an increase of the insertion loss. This paper concerns a first investigation on the absorption capabilities of a resonant metamaterial when thermo-viscous effects are incorporated via the addition of microslits. In a previous work, a resonant metamaterial was obtained through the inclusion of resonating structures into cavities of an open honeycomb assembly. In this study, the air gap of the honeycomb structure is reduced so as to provide viscous losses for the travelling waves. Considering that the created resonant structures with open cavities are rigid, an equivalent fluid model is used to calculate the acoustical properties of a so called microslit metamaterial. It is demonstrated that the unit cell structure can be divided into parallel elements for which the acoustic impedance can be computed via the transfer matrix approach TMM in parallel and series. Likewise, it is shown that the structural response can be predicted by FEM models allowing studying the structural effects separately from the viscous–thermal effects predicted by the equivalent fluid model. Moreover, the combined effect of both approaches is shown experimentally where it is observed that: (i) The absorption of the resonant metamaterial is increased by the addition of microslits, (ii) the modes of the test sample appear as small peaks on the absorption curve of the microslit metamaterial, (iii) the structural modes are grouped below and above the stop band and, (iv) the resonant structures do not lead to additional absorption in the stop band region. Analytical models are compared to experimental measurements to validate the models and to show the potential of this material assembly. •A metamaterial that provides insertion loss and acoustic absorption is proposed.•The absorption and structural stop band effects are modelled separately.•The acoustic impedance is obtained by a TMM approach in series and/or parallel.•FEM and Unit Cell models predict the structural response and the stop bands.•Absorption and structural effects are observed jointly in the measurements.