A virtual acoustic black hole on a cantilever beam

An acoustic black hole (ABH) consists of a tapered structure whose thickness follows a power -law profile. When attached to a host structure, an ABH localizes and traps the vibrational energy, which can then be dissipated through, e.g., a damping layer. However, effective vibration mitigation is known to occur only above a cut-on frequency which is inversely proportional to the length of the tapered structure. In this context, the main thrust of this paper is to replace a mechanical ABH by a digital controller so as to create a so-called virtual acoustic black hole (VABH), thus, freeing the ABH from possible mechanical constraints (e.g., compactness, manufacturing and fatigue issues). The proposed VABH is first detailed theoretically. The salient features and performance of the VABH are then demonstrated both numerically and experimentally using a cantilever beam as a host structure. Eventually, it is shown that the VABH significantly enlarges the applicability of the concept of an ABH.

Automated summary

An acoustic black hole is a tapered structure that can trap and dissipate vibrational energy. This paper proposes a virtual acoustic black hole (VABH) which replaces the mechanical ABH with a digital controller, eliminating constraints such as compactness and manufacturing issues. The VABH is theoretically detailed and its performance is demonstrated numerically and experimentally using a cantilever beam. This study shows that the VABH significantly expands the applicability of the ABH concept.