Lightweight Thermoacoustic Device Using Novel Materials for Noise Cancellation of Military Vehicles

In military settings, vehicle engine noise can be a source of vulnerability, revealing the location of vital resources to hostile threats. Cancellation of the vehicles noise is necessary to safeguard many military missions and mitigate enemy threats. This proposal concerns an innovative lightweight thermoacoustic device using thin, flexible, novel materials for active noise cancellation of military ground combat vehicles (GCVs). Our research addresses the thermal, acoustical, and energy conversion issues as well as limited durability and fabrication drawbacks suffered by current thermoacoustic speakers (also known as thermophones). During Phase I, we have developed and characterized nanostructure thermophone materials that provide additional functionality, are durable, lightweight, flexible, can be made using cost effective production technologies. During Phase II, we will implement the processing innovations identified in Phase I to improve the thermoacoustic properties of the materials; develop a methodology to achieve sound pressures in the range of 60-140 dB; and develop and demonstrate a prototype device that incorporates the thermoacoustic material into a digital and/or analog communications system with a sufficient bandwidth. For this STTR project, Lynntech has teamed Dr. Ali Aliev (NanoTech Institute, University of Texas at Dallas), a renowned expert on thermoacoustic and nanostructure materials for thermophones.