Sound absorption of a double-leaf micro-perforated panel with an air-back cavity and a rigid-back wall: Detailed analysis with a Helmholtz-Kirchhoff integral formulation

So far the electro-acoustical equivalent circuit analysis has been widely used to analyse micro-perforated panel (MPP) absorbers, however, as for the double-leaf MPP the equivalent circuit analysis inevitably includes an approximation. In this paper, the sound absorption characteristics of a double-leaf MPP absorber backed by a rigid wall are analysed by wave theory using Helmholtz-Kirchhoff integral formulation to obtain a strict solution. The present wave theory is experimentally validated with existing measured results. The theory is also compared with the equivalent circuit solutions so that the differences between the two theories appear and the effect of the approximation is clarified. The comparison shows that the difference mainly appears in the vicinity of the resonance peaks: the differences occur in the resonance frequencies and the absorption coefficient at frequencies between the two resonance peaks. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.