Hydroacoustic High Absorption with Broadband and Wide-Angle Impedance Matching

We numerically demonstrate a general method to achieve acoustic high absorption in water with a wide range of incident angles and a broad frequency bandwidth. Different from previous studies considering local resonances with a narrow bandwidth or porous materials with a gradient design, we show that flat multilayer solid composites can be engineered to be perfectly impedance matched with water over a wide range of angles and a broad spectrum. By adding a proper loss factor to the composites, sound waves can be gradually dissipated and high absorption can be realized. Such a method is robust and adaptive to a broad range of material parameters. Our work could promise broad underwater applications.

Automated summary

We numerically demonstrate a general method to achieve acoustic high absorption in water with a wide range of incident angles and a broad frequency bandwidth. By engineering multilayer solid composites to be perfectly impedance matched with water and adding a proper loss factor, sound waves can be gradually dissipated and high absorption can be realized. This method is robust and adaptive to a broad range of material parameters.