Thin broadband noise absorption through acoustic reactance control by electro-mechanical coupling without sensor.

Broadband noise with profound low-frequency profile is prevalent and difficult to be controlled mechanically. This study demonstrates effective broadband sound absorption by reducing the mechanical reactance of a loudspeaker using a shunt circuit through electro-mechanical coupling, which induces reactance with different signs from that of loudspeaker. An RLC shunt circuit is connected to the moving coil to provide an electrically induced mechanical impedance which counters the cavity stiffness at low frequencies and reduces the system inertia above the resonance frequency. A sound absorption coefficient well above 0.5 is demonstrated across frequencies between 150 and 1200 Hz. The performance of the proposed device is superior to existing passive absorbers of the same depth (60 mm), which has lower frequency limits of around 300 Hz. A passive noise absorber is further proposed by paralleling a micro-perforated panel with shunted loudspeaker which shows potentials in absorbing band-limit impulse noise.