Acoustic Radiation from Smart Foam for Various Foam Geometries

Smart foam is an emerging active-passive noise control technology with many applications. Smart foam consists of passive foam with an embedded curved piezoelectric (PZT) film. We experimented with three geometries of varying film curvatures and a constant cross-sectional area of 58 cm$^{2}$, constructed using melamine foam covered with 28 $\mu $m thick polyvinylidene fluoride (piezoelectric) films with Cu-Ni surface electrodes. An AC voltage provided by a signal generator and amplifier drives the smart foam. An omnidirectional microphone mounted at a distance 100mm from the foam surface measured the sound level (dB) and harmonic distortion generated by the smart foam. Experiments were repeated for voltages, 40V-140V, and frequencies, 300Hz-2000Hz. The result show that the sound level generated by the smart foams has a characteristic frequency response common to all geometries and a peak sound level between 900 to 1,100 Hz.