Using simple shape three-dimensional inclusions to enhance porous layer absorption

The absorption properties of a metaporous material made of non-resonant simple shape three-dimensional inclusions (cube, cylinder, sphere, cone and torus) embedded in a rigidly backed rigid frame porous material is studied. A nearly total absorption can be obtained for a frequency lower than the quarter-wavelength resonance frequency due to the excitation of a trapped mode. To be correctly excited, this mode requires a filling fraction larger in the three-dimensions than in the two-dimensions for purely convex (cube, cylinder, sphere, and cone) shapes. At low frequencies, a cube is found to be the best purely convex inclusion shape to embed in a cubic unit cell, while the embedment of a sphere or a cone cannot lead to an optimal absorption for some porous materials. At fixed position of purely convex shape inclusion barycentre, the absorption coefficient only depends on and filling fraction and does not depend on the shape below the Bragg frequency arising from the interaction between the inclusion and its image with respect to the rigid backing. The influence of the angle of incidence is also shown. The results, in particular the excitation of the trapped mode, are validated experimentally in case of cubic inclusions.