RESINators - Miniature Acoustic Resonator Systems

声学超材料是一种材料，它的声学特性不是来自于它的组成原子的特性，而是来自于它的形状和几何形状——它的构造方式，而不是它的构造。这种超材料的构造方式可以创造出传统材料不可能具备的材料特性，比如负密度和负体积模量——这些特性与我们所期望的材料行为方式相反。声音在这些材料中的传播是不寻常的，超材料可以用来掩盖物体的声音，显示出极其有效的噪声抑制，或者以奇怪的方式操纵声音。为了使这些材料更贴近现实世界的应用，需要解决的一个问题是规模问题。这些结构的小型化是为了提高功效和效率，并使超材料可能可穿戴，也就是说，这些材料是人类努力的尺度。问题在于，随着声学系统的小型化，它们通常工作在更高的频率上，远离音频，而且制造小型结构来实现可穿戴材料，例如耳机，是具有挑战性和昂贵的。先进的制造方法正在进步，现在可以使用具有微观特征的3d打印方法构建复杂的几何物体，尤其是由于我们实验室和世界各地其他实验室的最新发展。这为小型声学系统（微型乐器）的快速原型化提供了可能，这些系统可以堆叠在一起创造声学超材料，同时仍然可以在音频频率下工作。在这个项目中，我们试图建立新的声学系统，这些声学系统具有在音频频率下运行的微尺度特征，将3D打印和声学系统设计的进步结合在一起，创造出具有优异声学性能的材料，同时重量轻，规模小。由于我们在新型聚合物和3d打印技术方面的工作，潜在材料设计的前景是这样的，我们可以致力于开发个人音频系统，这些系统可以构成下一代可穿戴消费产品技术的声学系统的音频科学。

An acoustic metamaterial is a material in which its acoustic properties are derived not from the characteristics of its constituent atoms, but from the shape and geometry - the way that it is built, not from what it is built. Such metamaterials can be constructed in such a way as to create material properties that are impossible in traditional materials, such as negative density and negative bulk modulus - properties counterintuitive to the way in which we expect materials to behave. Acoustic propagation in these materials is unusual, and metamaterials can be used to cloak objects from sound, to show extremely efficient noise suppression, and otherwise manipulate sound in strange ways.One issue to tackle, to make these materials more relevant to real-world applications, is one of scale. Miniaturisation of these structures is desirable to improve efficacy and efficiency, and make metamaterials perhaps wearable, i.e. such that the materials are on the scale of human endeavours. The problems are that typically acoustic systems work at ever higher frequencies as they are miniaturised, moving away from audio frequencies, and also that creating small structures to enable wearable materials in, for example, headphones, is challenging and expensive.Advanced manufacturing methods are progressing such that it is possible now to build complex geometrical objects using 3D-printing methods with features in the microscale, not least due to recent developments in our laboratories and others worldwide. This opens up the possibility of rapidly prototyping small acoustic systems - miniature musical instruments - that can be stacked together to create acoustic metamaterials, while still working at audio frequencies.In this project, we seek to establish new acoustic systems built with microscale features that operate at audio frequencies pulling together advances in 3D printing and acoustic system design to create materials that have exceptional acoustic performance while being lightweight and small scale. The landscape of potential material design, enabled by our work on novel polymers and 3d printing technology, is such that we can aim to develop systems for personal audio that could constitute the science of audio of acoustic systems for the next generation of technologies in wearable consumer products.