Researchers from the University of Southern California have developed a smart acoustic material based on the complex geometrical patterns of the dermal denticles of a shark’s skin.
The new metamaterial accommodates shifts in acoustic transmission on demand. It contains magneto-sensitive nanoparticles that will bend under the force of magnetic stimuli. This magnetic force can change the structure remotely and on-demand, accommodating different transmission conditions. This new material, which is composed of of rubber and a mix of iron nanoparticles. The rubber offers flexibility, allowing the materials to bend and flex reversibly and repeatedly, while the iron makes the material responsive to the magnetic field.
“With traditional acoustic metamaterials, you create one structure and you achieve one property. With this new smart material, we can achieve multiple properties with just one structure,” Qiming Wang, assistant professor in the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering said.
Wang and his team, including USC Viterbi Ph.D. candidates Kyung Hoon Lee, Kunhao Yu, An Xin and Zhangzhengrong Feng, and postdoctoral scholar Hasan Al Ba’ba’a, detailed their findings in their paper “Sharkskin-Inspired Magnetoactive Reconfigurable Acoustic Metamaterials,” published in the most recent issue of the journal, Research.
This new material could have a variety of technological applications, including computers and noise-cancelling headphones.