Using Distributed Control to Achieve One-Way Wave Propagation in Acoustic Systems

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Acoustic waveguides - structures that guide sound waves - are ubiquitous and found in nature (for example, the ear canal) as well as in engineered consumer, industrial, and military products (for example, mufflers in automobiles). In this research, investigators will explore how a network of sensors, actuators and amplifiers can be used to improve control over transmission of sound, leading to highly directional acoustic waveguides. The target applications are in electronics, such as in cell phones. The process will involve a rigorous design-model-build-test process combining state-of-the-art theoretical and numerical modeling with new experimental techniques. Outreach to underrepresented students in engineering from the Atlanta University Center-Consortium of Historically Black Colleges and Universities will be realized through a two-summer internship in the Michigan Summer Training in Acoustics Researcher (M-STAR) program. Interns will team with PhD students to develop Cool Acoustics demonstration projects and take part in the project research.This new approach to waveguide design will require new analysis tools for a variety of purposes. This is due to the generation of a spatial delay differential equation (DDE) resulting from feedforward of the field and gradient information (unlike the time domain DDE, these equations are seldom studied). In order to fix the design space, Floquet-Bloch of these spatial systems will be modified. The analysis of stability, robustness, and effectiveness of the designs will be identified allowing for the most promising designs to be realized in hardware. The outcome of work is a new approach that has the potential to radically change how one-way wave propagation is achieved enabling new classes of acoustic systems and devices.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.