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 engine 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 will address the thermal, acoustical, and energy conversion issues as well as limited durability and fabrication drawbacks suffered by current thermoacoustic speakers (also known as thermophones). We will develop and characterize nanostructure thermophone materials that provide additional functionality, are durable, lightweight, flexible, can be made using cost effective production technologies, and can be easily designed to fit into tight spaces. For this STTR application, Lynntech has teamed Dr. Ali Aliev (NanoTech Institute, University of Texas at Dallas), a renowned expert on thermoacoustic and nanostructure materials for thermophones. During the Phase I project, we will develop new thermophone materials, design and fabricate encapsulated thin film thermophones, investigate thin film loudspeaker material properties, and achieve sound pressure levels upwards of 120dB.