Acoustic wave propagation and stochastic effects in metamaterial absorbers

We show how stochastic variations of the effective parameters of anisotropic structured metamaterials can lead to increased absorption of sound. For this, we derive an analytical model based on the Bourret approximation and illustrate the immediate connection between material disorder and attenuation of the averaged field. We demonstrate numerically that broadband absorption persists at oblique irradiation and that the influence of red noise comprising short spatial correlation lengths increases the absorption beyond what can be archived with a structured but ordered system. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.