Conformal acoustic black hole for flexural wave manipulation and vibration reduction: design, simulation, and experiments

Abstract In this paper, a conformal acoustic black hole (CABH) based on the Zhukovski mapping is proposed. The design of the CABH incorporates the ABH technique and the conformal mapping method and is realized by varying the plate thickness. The uniqueness of the CABH is that it has the function of ABH flexural wave cloaking, meanwhile, its vibration reduction performance is consistent with the ordinary ABH. This work validated the ABH flexural wave broadband cloaking performance of the CABH by the scattering measure, then experimentally verified the significant vibration reduction performance of the CABH above the cut-on frequency by the linear average acceleration level. The conformal mapping method extends the function of the ordinary ABH, and the CABH can be used to replace the ordinary ABH for multi-functional applications of the ABH. This study has potential applications in vibration control of perforated wall panels in mechanical equipment.