Tunable composite lattice structure for low-frequency and ultra-broadband underwater sound absorption

The underwater sound absorption technique in low-frequency and broadband has far-reaching prospects since it is essential for noise reduction of deep-sea operation requirements and evading advanced underwater target detection. Here, we propose an underwater sound-absorbing composite lattice with low-frequency and ultra-broadband characteristics. The composite lattice is constructed by regular spatially stacking cells with different sizes of metallic core spheres. All the core spheres are coated with silicon rubbers, and cells are embedded in the rubber matrix. In the composite lattice stereostructure, the lattice cells convert incident longitudinal waves into transverse waves through multiple local resonance coupling and multiple scattering. The energy is localized and dissipated in the composite lattice. We analyze the relationship among the corresponding absorption spectrums, the displacement clouds, and the resonance modes of lattice cells. Then, we construct a composite lattice and realize low-frequency broadband absorption from 693 to 1106 Hz with absorptance above 0.8. Further, our investigation demonstrates that the absorption bandwidth can be extended to ultra-broadband from 1077 to 10 000 Hz, where the thickness of the composite lattice is lambda / 17.05. The proposed composite lattice provides a practical approach to designing ultrathin low-frequency and ultra-broadband acoustic absorption coating for underwater noise suppression.