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n2doc

(47,953 posts)
Fri May 30, 2014, 12:36 PM May 2014

Researchers design a new structure that absorbs all sound

A new step toward the perfect acoustic absorber. Researchers of the Universitat Politècnica de València at the Campus de Gandia have designed and experimentally evaluated in the laboratory a new structure made of conventional porous materials –used in the construction industry- that permit the complete absorption of sound at a wide range of frequencies.

The Technical University of Denmark, the LUNAM Université of Le Mans (France) and the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO, in Spanish) have also taken part in this project. The results have been released in Scientific Reports, from Nature Publishing.

"Our study tackles one of the most important problems of society today from a new point of view: the design of materials and surfaces able to significantly reduce noise. In view of the results, we believe we have taken an important step toward the perfect absorber. And that has been done just by reconfiguring a known material," says Víctor Sánchez-Morcillo, researcher at the Campus de Gandia of the Universitat Politècnica de València and director of the Master's Degree in Acoustic Engineering, taught at this campus.

In their work, the researchers have demonstrated how the designed structure achieves extraordinary sound absorption using an apparently contradictory strategy: the sound attenuation increases when the quantity of absorbent material is reduced. This way, a totally reflective surface becomes a perfect absorbent despite the fact that, for the most part, there is no material that absorbs sound.

more

http://phys.org/news/2014-05-absorbs.html

Good-Now make it available to cover apartment walls and ceilings....

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Researchers design a new structure that absorbs all sound (Original Post) n2doc May 2014 OP
Even the bass from a neighbor's stereo? The deep bass from thunder cars? valerief May 2014 #1
Even better would be the whine of my neighbors' leafblowers thucythucy May 2014 #3
Nonsense! This has been know about for decades. longship May 2014 #2
Open-access paper, view/download free. bananas May 2014 #4

thucythucy

(8,032 posts)
3. Even better would be the whine of my neighbors' leafblowers
Fri May 30, 2014, 01:04 PM
May 2014

and the rumble/whine of their riding mowers.

Hate that stuff.

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