Experimental investigation of sound absorption in a composite absorber

A composite absorber made of a polyurethane sponge and multi-layer micro-perforated plates is presented in this study. Results from an acoustic impedance tube test show that the polyurethane sponge can exhibits higher low-frequency sound absorption in front of the micro-perforated plate, while sound absorption at medium and high-frequencies remains low. The physical mechanism behind this is that the micro-perforated plate increases the denpth cavity. If the polyurethane sponge is placed behind the micro-perforated plate, the amplitude of the original absorption peak will remain constant, but the absorption peaks will shift to lower frequencies. The reason for this phenomenon is that porous materials with low flow resistance can be approximately equivalent to fluid, which not only does not affect the resonance absorption coefficient of micro-perforated plate, but also makes the peaks move to low frequency. This study has the potential applications in the sound absorption design of composite structure.