Sound absorption of a thick micro-perforated panel with tapered sections

This article aims to investigate the sound absorbing properties of a thick microperforated panel (MPP) with tapered sections with finite element analysis (FEA) models. The FEA model was validated by using the measured sound absorption coefficients of a classic MPP sample and a proposed MPP sample. The FEA simulation and the experiments indicate that the tapered section can enhance the sound absorption coefficient. Moreover, the FEA model shows that the structural parameters of the tapered section can be optimized. The resonance frequency of the sound absorption coefficient moves to the high-frequency range, and the maximum sound absorption coefficient increases in three conditions, the tapered section moving toward the backing cavity, and the increase of the thickness and the bottom radius of the tapered section. Although the optimized configurations of the tapered section may vary with the structure parameters of the MPP, the tapered section can improve the sound absorbing properties of the classic MPP and could be promising in the noise and vibration engineering projects.