Investigating the Effect of Dimension Parameters on Sound Transmission Losses in Nomex Honeycomb Sandwich

Abstract

In this study, an impedance tube test was performed to explore the influence of various dimension parameters of Nomex honeycomb sandwich core material on sound transmission loss (STL). The parameters investigated included the size of the honeycomb cells and thickness of the face sheets and honeycomb cores, and the effects of single- and double-layered sandwich structures were also explored. The boundary element and finite element methods were used to simulate test results. The results show that the size of the honeycomb cells has an insignificant effect on STL. Increasing the thickness of face sheets can move the STL valley point of the material at high frequency (around 5 kHz) in the low-frequency direction and increase the STL in parts of the high frequency band. Increasing the thickness of the honeycomb core can improve STL, on the whole, but the magnitude of the improvement effect becomes weakened after the thickness of the core reaches 30 mm. The STL of double-layered structures was found to be superior to that of the single-layered structures. The simulations reveal that the trends in the STL curves of the honeycomb sandwich panels are influenced by the structural mode of the panels, and are related to the resonance of the materials. The results and relevant conclusions obtained through the above research verify that the law of influence of the structure dimension parameters on the STL measured by the impedance tube is similar to that of the large panel. This can provide a reference for the application of the impedance tube test method in structural noise reduction design.