Band Structure in a Sustainable Sonic Crystal

Abstract

During the last few decades many researchers have been interested in acoustic wave propagation in artificial periodic composites known as sonic crystals. Sonic crystals have received renewed attention because they exhibit acoustic band gaps where there are only evanescent waves. Sonic crystals consist of a periodic array of scatterers embedded in a host medium. The host medium and/or scatterers are fluids. We investigate the band structure of acoustic waves propagating in a sustainable sonic crystal composed by miriti fibers and air, regarding square and triangular lattices. Miriti fibers are extracted from buriti palm petiole (Mauritia flexuosa Mart.), which is a typical specie that grows in Amazonian region. We also study the influence of miriti fiber cross section, i.e. circular, hollow circular, square and rotated square with a 45° angle of rotation with respect to x, y axes. Plane wave expansion method is used to solve the wave equation. Acoustic band gaps are observed for all miriti fiber cross sections and lattices. The best performances of the sustainable sonic crystal are for triangular lattice, regarding circular and rotated square miriti fiber cross sections, and for square lattice with circular miriti fiber cross section. We suggest that the sustainable sonic crystal should be feasible for noise management.