Acoustic metamaterial panels for sound attenuation in the 50 - 1000 Hz regime

We show experimentally that thin membrane-type acoustic meta-materials can serve as a total reflection nodal surface at certain frequencies. The small decay length of the evanescent waves at these frequencies implies that several membrane panels can be stacked to achieve broad-frequency effectiveness. We report the realization of acoustic metamaterial panels with thickness < 15mm and weight < 3 kg/m2 demonstrating 19.5dB of internal sound transmission loss (STL) at around 200 Hz, and stacked panels with thickness < 60 mm and weight < 15 kg/m2 demonstrating an average STL of > 40dB over a broad range from 50 to 1000 Hz