Yonghu Huang, Yong Ouyang, Hongli Zhang, Jian Huang, Yulong Wang
Abstract Low-frequency noise poses a key challenge in the fields of aerospace and railway transportation. Membrane-type acoustic metamaterials (MAMs) offer a highly promising route to breaking the mass law while maintaining a lightweight design. However, their practicality and adjustability in large-scale applications are always limited by the complex manufacturing processes required for discrete resonant masses. To address these limitations, this study proposes a novel Archimedean spiral resonant mass based membrane-type acoustic metamaterial (ASRM-MAM) for low-frequency broadband noise control. By eliminating the need for discrete mass attachments, this design offers improved manufacturability. Its acoustic performance was validated through finite element modeling and impedance tube tests, demonstrating an effective insulation band of 70–680 Hz. The underlying mechanism, identified as a continuous multi-mode anti-resonance, was clarified by comparing sound transmission loss curves and modal responses across different structural configurations. Systematic parametric analysis reveals the nonlinear and threshold-dependent influence of key parameters—spiral radial spacing, filling factor, rotation angle, height, and density of resonant mass—on sound transmission loss (STL) bandwidth and peak. Notably, at 50% relative density, the structure retains performance comparable to a reference design while reducing mass to 53.5%. Guided by parametric analysis, the NSGA-II multi-objective genetic algorithm co-optimized the design for STL bandwidth and peak, achieving a 23.6% expansion in bandwidth and a 15.9% increase in peak insulation. The ASRM-MAM demonstrates high performance, tunability, lightweight potential, and enhanced robustness compared to discrete resonator designs, providing a practical and scalable solution for low-frequency noise control (<1000 Hz) in aerospace and transportation engineering.