New Passive Material for Vibration Isolation and Soundproofing

This proposal details a new concept in passive sound and vibration absorption. Our approach will have vastly superior performance over a broader range of frequencies for sound absorption and vibration isolation than currently available approaches. It could be easily applied to submarine surfaces for quieting or used in space applications for vibration damping. The technique can be applied to a wide range of matrix material types, allowing us to optimize the material for other properties such as structural strength, light weight, cost, or thermal properties while still achieving better sound and vibration properties than are available in other passive materials. By the end of the Phase 1 effort we will have fabricated and tested samples for both sound and vibration attenuation.