An acoustic cloaking design based on topology optimization

Abstract

In this work, we explain how to utilize the topology optimization method for the design of acoustic cloaks based on the principle of scattering cancellation. To take account of the challenging fabrication restriction, we impose boundary control inside the optimization objective function and enforce hyperbolic tangent projection to minimize the gray transition regions of the optimized design. In addition, a filter based on the Helmholtz differential equation is used to remove any tiny structures due to the effect of discretized grids. Then, we fabricate the designed cloaks and conduct the experiments in a couple of representative set-ups to validate the proposed design approach. The experiments are conducted inside both air and water. We found that the current cloaking design performs much better in air than in water and reveal the associated reason. Overall, this work paves the way for the acoustic cloaking design, fabrication, and experiments for future practical applications.