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Three-dimensional broadband omnidirectional acoustic ground cloak

Nature Materials volume 13, pages 352–355 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

The control of sound propagation and reflection has always been the goal of engineers involved in the design of acoustic systems. A recent design approach based on coordinate transformations, which is applicable to many physical systems1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14, together with the development of a new class of engineered materials called metamaterials, has opened the road to the unconstrained control of sound. However, the ideal material parameters prescribed by this methodology are complex and challenging to obtain experimentally, even using metamaterial design approaches. Not surprisingly, experimental demonstration of devices obtained using transformation acoustics is difficult, and has been implemented only in two-dimensional configurations10,15. Here, we demonstrate the design and experimental characterization of an almost perfect three-dimensional, broadband, and, most importantly, omnidirectional acoustic device that renders a region of space three wavelengths in diameter invisible to sound.

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Figure 1: Schematic representation of the pyramid-shaped acoustic ground cloak.
Figure 2: Snapshots of the fabricated cloak.
Figure 3: Experimental set-up and qualitative results.
Figure 4: Measured signals at three different locations, A, B and C.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative grants from the Office of Naval Research (N00014-13-1-0631) and from the Army Research Office (W911NF-09-1-00539).

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  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, North Carolina 27708, USA

Authors
  1. Lucian Zigoneanu
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  2. Bogdan-Ioan Popa
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  3. Steven A. Cummer
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Contributions

B-I.P. and L.Z. performed the simulations. L.Z. conducted the fabrication, experimental design and measurements. All three authors equally contributed to the development of the project and to the text of the paper.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Zigoneanu, L., Popa, BI. & Cummer, S. Three-dimensional broadband omnidirectional acoustic ground cloak. Nature Mater 13, 352–355 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3901

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