Hybrid noise control in a duct using a light micro-perforated plate

A plate silencer consists of an expansion chamber with two side-branch cavities covered by light but extremely stiff plates. It works effectively with a wide stopband from low-to-medium frequencies only if the plate is extremely stiff, to ensure a strong reflection of acoustic wave to the upstream in the duct. However, a plate with a slightly weak bending stiffness will result in non-uniform transmission loss (TL) spectra with narrowed stopband. In this study, a hybrid silencer is proposed by introducing micro-perforations into the plate to elicit the sound absorption in order to compensate for the deficiency in the passband caused by the insufficient sound reflection in a certain frequency range due to weaker plate stiffness. A theoretical model, capable of dealing with the strong coupling between the vibrating micro-perforated plate and sound fields inside the cavity and the duct, is developed. Through proper balancing between the sound absorption and reflection, the proposed hybrid silencer provides a more flattened and uniform TL and a widened stopband by more than 20% while relaxing the harsh requirement on the bending stiffness of the plate. Theoretical predictions are validated by experimental data, with phenomenon explained through numerical analyses.