Applied Acoustics 158 (2020) 107045

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Applied Acoustics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apacoust

Technical note

A generalized model for space-coiling resonators

Xiaonan Wang a,b, Yude Zhou a,b, Jinqiu Sang c, Wenying Zhu a,b,⇑
a
Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences, 508 Qinzhou Road, Shanghai 200233, China
b
Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Urban Environmental Noise Control, 508 Qinzhou Road, Shanghai 200233, China
c
Key Laboratory of Noise and Vibration Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: An ultra-thin absorber with a coiling chamber can realize a total sound absorption in an extremely low
Received 24 May 2019 frequency. This can be regarded as the extreme case of a resonator with an extended partition. A coiled
Received in revised form 18 August 2019 partition extends into a cavity, paving an elongated path and hence tuning the control band into lower
Accepted 17 September 2019
frequency. To theoretically investigate the performance evolution during this process, a theoretical model
Available online 4 October 2019
is proposed in this paper, which is then validated by numerical simulations as well as experiments. In
fact, this theory links the space-coiling resonator to the conventional Helmholtz resonator and the
Keywords:
quarter-wavelength tube, which are two extreme cases representing no partition and full partition,
Low-frequency noise control
Coiling partition
respectively. It turns out that, by extending the partition, the working wavelength can reach approxi-
Transfer matrix method mately 26 times the side length of the original cavity, revealing the effective capability of low frequency
control via a small unit.
Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction frequency bandwidth of such a structure can be further broadened

Mitigation of the low-frequency noise has always been chal-
lenging due to its weak interaction with structures in case of long
wavelength [1]. Traditional sound absorbing material, such as por-
ous material, as well as microperforated panels performs poorly at
low frequencies [2,3]. On the other hand, typical resonant struc-
tures stand out for their considerable low-frequency performance
[4,5], but the relative bulky volumes still limit their applications.
To overcome this, different suggestions have been proposed to
enhance the interaction between the low-frequency sound wave
and the structure, such as multi-layered structure [6], hybrid con-
trol [7,8], and structure arrays [9,10].
Recent development of metamaterial has motivated a series of
new solutions for low-frequency noise control, including mem-
brane absorbers [11], coherent absorption [12], and labyrinthine-
type absorbers [13]. Among these, labyrinthine-type absorbers
working by space coiling up have been intensively investigated
for their attracting features. By shrinking the original bulky volume
into a subwavelength scale, the absorber with a coiling chamber
can realize a total sound absorption at an extremely low frequency,
while the total thickness is in a deep-subwavelength scale [14,15].
By coiling up two axially coupled tubes in series, the working
⇑ Corresponding author at: Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences, 508
Qinzhou Road, Shanghai 200233, China.
E-mail address: zhuwy@saes.sh.cn (W. Zhu).
[16].
In principle, the absorber with a coiling chamber can be
regarded as the extreme case of a resonator with an extended par-
tition. Inspired by these works, a theoretical model is here estab-
lished to investigate the performance evolution as the coiling
partition extends into a cavity. In this paper, the theoretical analy-
sis is conducted in Section 2, numerical studies and experimental
validations are carried out in Section 3, and conclusions are laid
out in Section 4.
2. Theoretical analysis
A partition within a side-branch cavity in a duct, as illustrated
by the black solid line in Fig. 1(a), divides the whole cavity into a
narrow coiling path, which we will from here on call a coiling tube.
The tube’s width is denoted wn, while the 2D geometry of the cav-
ity is set to be H
W. Sound propagates along the main duct with
duct height Hd, while reflection and transmission occur when pass-
ing by the partitioned side-branch cavity. As illustrated in Fig. 1(b),
the partition gradually extends into the centre of cavity, with the
partition length described by the coiling-tube midline length ln
and the remaining area Sc. When no partition is inserted (ln = 0),
the structure can be treated as a cavity with a small opening,
amounting to a Helmholtz resonator. When the partition is
inserted and gradually extends, the cavity area is reduced, while
the coiling tube grows, and finally turns into a fully partitioned

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2019.107045
0003-682X/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 X. Wang et al. / Applied Acoustics 158 (2020) 107045

Fig. 1. (a) The schematic diagram of a space-coiling resonator; (b) a cavity with a gradual extending partition; (c) an equivalent model with an ‘‘straighten” tube and a square
cavity.

cavity (Sc = 0), which can be regarded as a coiled quarter- represents the tube’s cross-sectional area. Similarly, the sound
wavelength tube. It is difficult to directly establish a theoretical transmission in region II can be described as the following

 " #
j qSIIc sinklce
pout 
model for the complex configuration shown in Fig. 1(b); however,
pin cosklce
an equivalent model can be proposed, as illustrated in Fig. 1(c). By II
¼
II
; ð2Þ
‘‘straightening” the coiling tube, such a structure is in fact equiva- U in II j qSIIc sinklce cosklce U out II
lent to a resonator, whose neck is characterized by a tube width wn
and length ln. The equivalent cavity is characterized by a side in which pin II , U in II and pout II , U out II the acoustic pressures and vol-
length lce (the square root of Sc), as illustrated by Fig. 1(c). In this ume velocities at the input and output ends of the cavity, and SII the
way, we link the coiling-space resonator to both the Helmholtz res- cavity’s cross-sectional area. Following the conditions of sound
onator and the quarter-wavelength tube, which can be regarded as pressure and volume velocity continuity, the relationship between
its two extreme cases (i.e. ln = 0 and Sc = 0). the acoustic pressure and volume velocities at the neck of the tube
Under this condition, a theoretical model can be proposed for and the end of the cavity of Fig. 1(c) can be built as

 " #" #
the equivalent model. The frequency range considered in this study pin I coskln
0
j qSIc sinkln
0
cosklce j qSIIc sinklce
pout II 
is well below the cut-off frequencies of the neck and cavity. Conse- ¼ 0 0 :
U in I j qSIc sinkln coskln j qSIIc sinklce cosklce U out II
quently, planar wave propagates in the equivalent model. The
transfer matrix method (TMM) is adopted here to study sound ð3Þ
transmission within the regions. It is composed of two parts,
Furthermore, Eq. (3) can be rewritten as follows
namely a straight tube (region I) and a square cavity (region II),





as shown in Fig. 1(c). For region I, the acoustic pressures and vol- pin I pout II A B pout II
¼ T1T 2 ¼ : ð4Þ
ume velocities occurring at its input and output ends of the tube U in I U out II C D U out II
can be described as [17]
Eq. (4) gives the overall transfer matrix of the equivalent model.

 " 0 #
j qSIc sinkln
pout I 
0 By assuming the cavity wall to be rigid, i.e. U out II ¼ 0, the input
pin I
coskln
¼ 0 0 ; ð1Þ impedance of the model can be expressed as
U in I j qSIc sinkln coskln U out I
pin I A
Z in ¼ ¼ : ð5Þ
where pin I , U in I and pout I , U out I precisely are the acoustic pressures U in I C
0
and volume velocities. ln represents the effective length of the tube, Hence, the transmission loss (TL) of the equivalent model
which considers the end correction at each side [18,19], while SI flushed mounted along a duct can be described as [17]
 X. Wang et al. / Applied Acoustics 158 (2020) 107045
 
 Z in 
TL ¼ 20log10  ;
 ð6Þ
qc=2S þ Zd in
in which Sd is the cross-sectional area of the main duct.
3. Numerical simulations and experimental validation
To verify the theoretical model, numerical simulations are con-
ducted using COMSOL MultiphysicsTM. A single unit amplitude
plane sound wave travels into a rigid main duct; reflection as well
as transmission occur when passing by the side branch cavity. Both
the original coiling resonator and the equivalent model (the res-
onator with a ‘‘straightened” neck) are simulated. Consistent with
theoretical calculation, the duct’s height Hd is set to 0.2 m; while
the dimensions of the side-branch cavity in the simulation are
0.2 m
0.2 m.
3.1. Validation on the equivalent model
Here, the tube’s width is set as 0.04 m. For the equivalent
model, the tube length is set to be the midline length of the coiling
path. The equivalent cavity’s area simply is the remaining area, as
illustrated in Fig. 1(b).
Fig. 2 shows the theoretical and numerical predictions of the
space-coiling resonator with ln = 0.48 m. Good agreement validates
the effectiveness for the proposed theoretical method. Moreover, it
is observed that the TL peak occurs around 91 Hz, which indicates
that the working wavelength is approximately 19 times the side
length of the cavity, revealing the effective capability of low fre-
quency noise control via such a small unit.
3.2. Performance variation with gradually extending partition
Since the theoretical method for space-coiling resonators have
been established and verified, here we further investigate the per-
formance evolution as the partition gradually extends and finally
occupies the full area. Fig. 3 shows the fundamental resonant fre-
quency of the resonator with a constant width (wn = 0.04 m) and
a gradually increasing ln.
As the partition extends, the equivalent neck length ln grows,
while the cavity area Sc decreases. Since these two factors provide
Fig. 2. Transmission loss of the coiling resonator. The inset figure shows the coiling
resonator (the original model) and the ‘‘straightened” one (the equivalent model)
with ln = 0.48 m. Dashed line: the numerical prediction of the original model;
dashed-dotted line: the numerical prediction of the equivalent model; solid line:
the theoretical prediction of the equivalent model using TMM.
3
Fig. 3. Variation of the fundamental resonant frequency against ln.
contrary effects on shifting the resonant frequency [19], one may
have difficulty assessing the actual effect during this process. How-
ever, our theoretical prediction, associated with the numerical
results, underscores that the fundamental frequency of the
space-coiling resonator shifts to lower frequency. On the one hand,
it is observed that the resonant frequency shifts from initially more
than 200 Hz (ln = 0) to decrease to about 90 Hz (Sc = 0), which
reveals the great potential for low frequency noise control via a
fully-coiled resonator; on the other hand, given the tube width
0.04 m, both the space coiling resonator and the equivalent
straight duct have the TL peak of around 90 Hz. However, the
dimensions of the space coiling resonator are still 0.2 m
0.2 m,
while those of the straight tube are 0.04 m
0.8 m. Therefore,
space is greatly saved along the vertical direction, which means
that the space coiling resonator is significantly more compact
and may thus prove more practical in duct noise control
engineering.
It is seen for the equivalent model (the ‘‘straighten-neck” res-
onator) that the numerical and theoretical predictions generally
coincide with each other, with the exception of the very small ln
mainly attributed to the influence of the higher-order waves (the
evanescent waves) inside the tube, which cannot decay sufficiently
through such a short distance. As the tube’s length grows larger
than 0.1 m, the deviation of the two methods is within 1 dB.
3.3. Performance variation with different tube widths
The variation of the resonant frequency with different tube
width is studied in this section. Similar to Section 3.2, it is assumed
that the partition initially extends from zero, as shown by Fig. 4(a);
similar also to the situation in which the cavity is fully partitioned,
as shown in Fig. 4(b); while several widths, which ensure the
extending tube can finally occupy the entire cavity, are selected.
To give a clear comparison, partition turning number is used. For
example, turning 1 means the first turning of the partition, as illus-
trated by Fig. 4(b).
The comparisons of different widths are presented in Fig. 4(c),
showing that, within the first turning, the resonant frequency
decreases greatly for all tube width settings. Beyond turning 1,
the trends of the resonant frequency shifting become more tender
and finally reach a relatively stable value, which is limited by the
whole cavity area. Moreover, it is observed that narrower tube
width provides a lower resonant frequency at the same turning
number. For example, the resonant frequency is 233 Hz for
4 X. Wang et al. / Applied Acoustics 158 (2020) 107045

Fig. 4. (a) Illustration of the initial case with no partition (ln = 0); (b) illustration of the fully partitioned case; (c) the relationship of the fundamental resonant frequency and
partition turning number; (d) the variation of bandwidth against the tube width.

Fig. 5. (a) The numerical model of 3D space coiling resonator with area adaptors connecting to the cylindrical duct; (b) TL comparison between the 3D space coiling resonator
with area adaptors and 2D model; (c) Experimental setup.
 X. Wang et al. / Applied Acoustics 158 (2020) 107045
wn = 0.06 m while it is 193 Hz with wn = 0.03 m when the structure
has a cavity with only an opening (i.e. no partition and no turning).
And for the fully partitioned case, the resonant frequency is around
132 Hz for wn = 0.06 m while it is only 66 Hz with wn = 0.03 m.
It is seen from Fig. 4(c) that the narrower the tube width is, the
lower the fundamental resonant frequency. However, for noise
control applications, the bandwidth should also be considered. In
this study, the stopband is defined as the frequency range where
TL 5 dB. The reason why 5 dB is chosen is as follows. If there is
no partition, side-branched cavity forms an expansion chamber
of area ratio equal to 2, which provides a TL of around 2 dB, com-
pared to which, a TL of 5 dB would represent a substantial
improvement [20]. Fig. 4(d) illustrates the relationship between
the bandwidth and the tube width, which indicates that, although
narrower duct width helps achieving lower resonant frequency, it
results in a smaller bandwidth. Therefore, a balance should be
found between the target resonant frequency and the bandwidth
when choosing the tube width in structure design.
3.4. Experimental validation
Experimental validation was carried out with a Bru € el & Kjær
4206T impedance tube, and the transmission loss was measured
complying with ASTM E2611-09 [21]. Notice that the proposed
theoretical model is two-dimensional, which requires that the 2D
resonator together with the 2D duct shown in Fig. 1 should have
a uniform width in the other dimension. In other words, the 3D
resonator and the 3D duct should both be in the shape of a block
with the same width in the other direction. However, since the
Bru€ el & Kjær 4206T impedance tube is cylindrical with a diameter
of 100 mm, an area adaptor is needed to transfer the circular cross
section into a square, as shown in our specific predicted model in
the manuscript. It is worth noting that, to verify the accuracy of
our generalized theoretical model while avoiding excess effect
due to the area change, the side length of the square tube is set
to be 100 mm. Thus the dimension for the side-branch cavity is
chosen to be 100 mm
100 mm
100 mm.
Three-dimensional numerical simulation is first carried out, as
seen in Fig. 5(a), to evaluate the performance of the 3D space coil-
ing resonator with area adaptors connecting to the cylindrical duct.
As shown in Fig. 5(b), it is consequently established that there is
approximately no effect for the area adaptors to the total TL when
compared with 2D space coiling resonator. The experimental setup
is subsequently given in Fig. 5(c).
Fig. 6. Comparison of experimental result of the space-coiling resonator with
numerical simulations and theoretical predictions.
5
The test sample is made of photopolymer, the duct wall is 6 mm
thick, while the partition in the side-branch cavity is 2 mm thick,
which is believed to be acoustically rigid. The experimental results
were compared both with theoretical predictions as well as
numerical simulations, shown in Fig. 6. The inset figure shows
the predicted model with tube width of 0.02 m and length of
0.16 m. The TL derived from the measurement system shows
sound agreement with theoretical predictions and numerical
simulations.
4. Conclusions
A side-branched cavity with a coiling partition is studied in this
paper. As the partition gradually extends into the cavity, the coiling
path is elongated with the remaining area reduced, leading a
space-coiling resonator. To investigate this process, an equivalent
model is proposed in which the coiling tube is stretched into a
straight neck and the rest part is integrated as a square cavity.
The transfer matrix method is then adopted to describe the equiv-
alent model and compared with the numerical simulations. It is
shown that the theoretical prediction based on the equivalent
model agrees well with the simulations but provides a more direct
and easy way to evaluate the acoustic performance. In fact, this
theory provides a generalized description of the space-coiling res-
onator, and links it to the conventional Helmholtz resonator and
the quarter-wavelength tube, two extreme cases representing no
partition and full partition, respectively.
Furthermore, as has been demonstrated in this paper, as the
partition extends, the effective space for sound propagation is
elongated, resulting in the fundamental resonant frequency shift-
ing to the lower value. In this way, the working wavelength can
reach 26 times the side length of the original cavity in this study,
revealing the effective capability of low frequency control via a
small unit. This may have potential applications in noise control
engineering.
Acknowledgement
This work was financially supported in part by the National
Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 11704255, as well
as IACAS Young Elite Researcher Project under Grant No.
QNYC201720.
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