RESEARCH ARTICLE | OCTOBER 10 2023

Low frequency sound isolation by a metasurface of

Helmholtz ping-pong ball resonators 
R. Sabat ; E. Cochin ; M. Kalderon ; G. Lévêque ; I. Antoniadis ; B. Djafari-Rouhani ;
Y. Pennec 

J. Appl. Phys. 134, 144502 (2023)

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0160267

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Low frequency sound isolation by a metasurface

of Helmholtz ping-pong ball resonators
Cite as: J. Appl. Phys. 134, 144502 (2023); doi: 10.1063/5.0160267
Submitted: 31 May 2023 · Accepted: 27 August 2023 · View Online Export Citation CrossMark
Published Online: 10 October 2023

R. Sabat,1 E. Cochin,2 M. Kalderon,3 G. Lévêque,1 I. Antoniadis,3 B. Djafari-Rouhani,1

and Y. Pennec1,a)

AFFILIATIONS
1
IEMN, University of Lille, Cité Scientifique, 59650, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
2
UMET, University of Lille, Cité Scientifique, 59650, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
3
Dynamics and Acoustics Laboratory, National Technical University of Athens, Heroon Polytechniou 9, Athens,
Zografou 15780, Greece

a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]

ABSTRACT
We study both numerically and experimentally an acoustic metasurface based on coupled Helmholtz resonators to obtain broadband
low-frequency spectral responses for acoustic insulation. A hierarchical approach is proposed, starting from single and coupled Helmholtz

13 October 2023 15:49:54

resonators, up to a periodic array of resonators. To this end, we performed numerical simulations using the finite element method, in which
the resonators are modeled as drilled rigid spheres in airborne environment and experimental demonstrations based on ping-pong balls as
Helmholtz resonators in an acoustic reverberation box. We showed the alteration of the low-frequency response of acoustic insulation result-
ing from inter-unit coupling in acoustic metasurfaces, and the apparition of additional attenuation by inserting a plexiglass board as
support for the structure.

Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0160267

I. INTRODUCTION applications, such as focalization of sound,11 abnormal transmis-

Controlling the attenuation of acoustic waves in the sonic sion,12 or near-perfect absorption.13 The architecture of metasurfa-
ces14 is based on a series of repeated resonators such as spiral
range represents one of the major challenges in our urbanized soci-
spaces, membranes, and Helmholtz resonators, which have the
eties for the well-being of human life. Indeed, acoustic vibrations
ability to exhibit eigenmodes in the low-frequency range. Under
can lead to harmful consequences when people are subjected to
certain conditions, the interaction of the incoming wave with the
their high intensity and for a long time.1–4 The control and manip-
acoustic metasurface exhibits a local resonant vibration. For
ulation of acoustic waves using artificial structures represent a key instance, Yang et al.15 studied experimentally and theoretically an
survey in solving such a challenge. Several types of structures acoustic metamaterial made of a membrane of low elastic moduli con-
reducing the propagation of sound have been gradually proposed taining a mass in the middle. This simple structure presents low-
and developed over a wide range of frequencies,5–7 but the low- frequency oscillations, attenuating the noise in the [100–1000] Hz
frequency domain is still an issue to address. regime. Prasetiyo et al.16 implemented a coiled structure on the
The concept of acoustic metasurfaces8–10 was introduced a backing air cavity of a microperforated panel sound absorber, result-
decade ago, providing a new route for the manipulation of acoustic ing in a broader low-frequency absorption response through an
waves at low frequencies. These 2D materials of subwavelength increased displacement path. Ryoo and Jeon17 extended analytically,
thickness, by their different physical concepts and geometrical numerically, and experimentally the response in absorption of a
designs, demonstrated their efficiency in the acoustic wave control Helmholtz resonator (HR)-based acoustic metasurface by using a
and manipulation. Indeed, by a local control of phase and ampli- supercell of multiple unit cells varying their cavity volumes and/or
tude, the metasurface offers the opportunity to provide non-trivial different neck sections. The popularity of HRs has expanded owing to
transmission, reflection, and absorption, leading to unusual their efficiency in handling low-frequency sounds,18,19 despite their

J. Appl. Phys. 134, 144502 (2023); doi: 10.1063/5.0160267 134, 144502-1

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subwavelength size, and due to their economic viability, simplicity of modes, notably in the shape of a Fano resonance, we will place this
fabrication, and sensitivity to their geometric parameters. HRs have metasurface on a rigid plexiglass membrane. The paper is orga-
more generally been used for the demonstration of several functionali- nized as follows. The general model, based on ping-pong balls
ties like focalization of sound,20–22 anomalous reflection,23,24 refrac- acting as Helmholtz resonators, is presented in Sec. II, including
tion,25,26 and insulation of sound.27–29 useful descriptions of the numerical method and the experimental
However, one principal issue remains the narrowband setups. Section III is dedicated to the results and discussions, in
response of this type of structure and the difficult question of cov- which a hierarchy is adopted, starting from single and coupled
ering a large frequency spectrum, keeping a simple geometric Helmholtz resonators to a fully coupled periodic metasurface.
arrangement of the metasurface. In their study, Jiménez et al.30 Numerical results obtained on a single Helmholtz resonator with
demonstrated numerically, theoretically, and experimentally a one and two apertures are demonstrated experimentally.
broadband and asymmetric sound absorber based on an array of Subsequently, the system is expanded to investigate two coupled
Helmholtz resonators (HRs) with graded dimensions. Another way resonators with two apertures, as well as nine coupled resonators
to widen the frequency response is to introduce the coupling mech- with four apertures. Having exploited the behavior of a finite
anism between the resonators of the metasurface. Krynkin et al.31 system, we proceed to a periodic structure arranged in a square
developed analytically and validated experimentally a periodic array lattice deposited on a plexiglass board.
of scatterers based on a concentric arrangement of an outer N-slit
cylinder and an inner cylinder. The authors predict and demon-
strate the existence of bandgap resulting from the resonances of the II. METHODS
individual composite scatterers, below the Bragg scattering fre- Numerical simulations are performed using a finite element
quency. Romero-Garcia et al.32 highlighted the feasibility of achiev- analysis (COMSOL Multiphysics 5.6), based on the coupling of two
ing perfect absorption by critical coupling conditions in a physics modules, namely, pressure acoustics and solid mechanics.
metamaterial based on different numbers of HR ports. In their The first one, based on the Helmholtz equations solver, is used to
experimental study, Li et al.33 studied an acoustic metasurface com- define the propagation in the surrounding air, and the second one
posed of iterated pairs of rigidly coupled resonators. This configu- describes the solid part of the resonators. The validity of the
ration resulted in a remarkable phase opposition leading to numerical calculation applied to the HR geometry has been dis-
near-perfect absorption of incoming energy which effectively sup- cussed in our previous paper.36 Figure 1 shows a 3D representation
pressed sound reflection. Romero-Garcia et al.34 used this arrange- and its upper hemisphere of the ping-pong ball of thickness e and
ment to analytically and experimentally create complete sound radius R, connected to the outside air by an opening of radius r.

13 October 2023 15:49:54

absorption on dual sides of a meta-screen. The meta-screen relied The balls are defined as an elastic isotropic material made of a
on mirror-symmetric resonant structures that engendered both polymer of density 1180 kg/m3, Young’s modulus 2.5 ×109 Pa, and
symmetric and antisymmetric resonances, as part of their design Poisson’s ratio 0.37.
approach. Exploiting both the multiple coupled resonances and the For the calculation of the periodic metasurface made of a
Bragg scattering properties, Cavalieri et al.35 reported broadband square array of balls of diameter 4 cm, the elementary unit is
acoustic attenuation produced by a three-dimensional locally reso- placed in a supercell made of air of dimension 50 × 4.5 × 4.5 cm3,
nant sonic crystal. Liu et al.36 investigated a multi-unit metasurface as depicted in Fig. 2. This additional 5 mm is added between reso-
with multi-order sound absorption, which exhibits a continuous nators and edges to avoid numerical singularities complications.
near-perfect absorption spectrum in the low-frequency range. Perfectly matched layers (PMLs) of length 0.2 m are applied at the
Recently,37,38 two similar upside-down HR were used as a subwave- two boundaries along x to avoid any reflections and mimic an
length unit to build a periodic crystal and demonstrate the sound open infinite medium. Since we are essentially interested by
transmission loss performance of the system.
Therefore, the coupling effect appears as a key factor in the
development of metasurfaces. Up to now, the study of coupling
between elementary HR units has not been considered in a system-
atic way. Recently, we have deeply investigated numerically the case
of single and coupled Helmholtz resonators and showed that the
degeneracy of the low-frequency resonance can be raised in a sym-
metric and an antisymmetric peak with respect to the mirror sym-
metry plane between the twin HRs.39 Through a combination of
numerical analysis and experimentation, our main goal is to
amplify the sound insulation efficiency obtained thanks to the
absorption properties of the metasurface. This will be achieved by
interconnecting HR units, thus creating a thin and compact meta-
surface offering multiple local resonances. The interaction between
HRs can be manipulated by adjusting geometrical parameters, such FIG. 1. 3D-representation (left) and upper hemisphere (right) of a ping-pong
as the number of holes and their orientations, the number of reso- ball with one opening. The parameters used in the simulations are the cavity
radius R = 2 cm, the opening radius r = 2 mm, and the thickness of the sphere
nators, or the separation distance between units. To further
e = 0.5 mm.
improve sound insulation and introduce additional resonance

J. Appl. Phys. 134, 144502 (2023); doi: 10.1063/5.0160267 134, 144502-2

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representation is shown in Fig. 3. The sound was generated using

“Audacity” software,40 allowing the selection of the appropriate
parameters of the incident wave defined by a sinusoidal electrical
signal. This signal was amplified using a handmade locally devel-
oped amplifier (2), connected to the output of a speaker (1), of
diameter 15 cm and impedance 8 Ω, by electrical cables (3). For the
acquisition part, two BK type 4966 microphones (5) and (6) were
used for free-field high-precision measurements. These two micro-
phones are connected through two channels to a signal conditioner
type BK 1704 (4), and the detected signal was recorded and pro-
cessed using Audacity as well. In the experiments, the distance
between the loudspeaker (1) and the position of the samples (5)
and (6) has been chosen between 30 (at the working frequency of
FIG. 2. Schematic representation of the 3D supercell 1 m × 4.1 cm × 4.1 cm,
1000 Hz) and 40 cm (at 500 Hz), corresponding to almost a wave-
used for the FEM calculation of the transmission through a periodic metasurface
with two perfectly matched layer (PML) at both ends of the x direction, and peri- length in air, thus avoiding the near field perturbations.
odic conditions (PC) along y and z. The structure is excited with a planar wave Figure 4(a) shows the procedure followed for making the per-
of sound pressure level of 91 dB directed from left to right along x. The forations of the ping-pong balls, using a drilling machine and
response is recorded at the red point. forests of different sizes. For the multi-opening process, we used a
homemade (6 × 6 × 5) cm3 five sides wooden cube, sketched in
Fig. 4(b). Figure 4(c) shows the case of a 4.0 cm diameter ping-
propagation along the x direction (normal to the metasurface), we pong ball drilled with a single 1 mm radius opening. Finally, the
apply periodic boundary conditions along the directions y and z ball is installed on the microphone, through an additional opening,
through the Floquet–Bloch equations (ky = kz = 0) to build the infi- for the need of detection inside the ball.
nite metasurface. The structure is then excited along x, from left to A second experiment has been used to demonstrate the
right, with a low-frequency acoustic planar wave of sound pressure absorption of low-frequency sound through a periodic array of
level (SPL) of 91 dB. The detector, placed 12.5 cm away from the ping-pong balls. In this experimental setup, a reverberation box of
metasurface (red dot), allows the recording of the pressure in the dimensions 73.5 × 73.5 × 31 cm3, shown in Fig. 5(a), was used to
perform the measurements. Inside the box, a loudspeaker of diame-

13 October 2023 15:49:54

far field. The speed of sound and density of air take, respectively,
the values c = 340 m/s and ρ0 = 1.225 kg/m3. ter 16.5 cm and impedance 8 Ω is used to generate the harmonic
To consider the dissipation in air, we used a thermoviscous frequencies, controlled with the microphone (Mic0) from a Matlab
acoustic model where the air motion is described based on the code. This assembly constitutes the source of the setup. In the
momentum, continuity, and energy equations, direction of propagation, an external BK microphone (Mic1),
placed close to the metasurface, is used to detect the transmitted
 h i 2   waves which are finally analyzed using Visual Basics software. All
iωρ0 vt ¼ ∇Pt I þ ∇  μ ∇vt þ (∇vt )T  μ  μB [∇  vt ]I , experimental results presented in the paper were repeated six times
3
to ensure the data reproducibility. For the reverberation box, the
(1) measurements were done for different positions of Mic1, excluding
the edges, and with a distance maximal of 20 cm. As seen in
iωρt ¼ ρ0 ∇vt , (2) Fig. 5(b), the metasurface is surrounded by foam to prevent reflec-
tion from the boundaries of the box.
  Figure 5(c) illustrates the two samples studied in the following,
iω ρ0 Cp Tt  T0 αp Pt ¼ ∇:(κ∇Tt ), (3)
consisting of (10 × 9) ping-pong balls placed on a plexiglass board
  serving as support. Samples 1 consists of balls with a single hole of
ρt ¼ ρ0 β T Pt  αp Tt , (4) radius 2 mm oriented upwards. Sample 2 is made of ping-pong
balls drilled five times (radius 2 mm), and arranged so that one
where ρ0 is the air density (1.2 kg/m3) at the ambient temperature opening is oriented upwards and the four others in connection
T0 = 293 K, and Pt, vt, Tt, and ρt are the values of the pressure, with their close neighbors. The results are not affected by a small
velocity, temperature, and density at the considered position in random distribution of the holes on top. From a practical point of
space and for the given acoustic frequency. The bulk and dynamic view, a cylindrical rod, 50 cm long and 4 mm in diameter, was used
viscosities employed in the simulations are those of air, namely, to ensure the alignment of the holes located on the sides. The
μB = 1.09 × 10−5 and μ = 1.81 × 10−5 Pa s. Cp , κ, β T , and αp are the results are not affected by the slight positional disorder of those
heat capacity at constant pressure, the coefficient of thermal con- facing upwards.
duction, the isothermal compressibility, and the coefficient of
thermal expansion. I is the identity vector.
Two experiments were carried out. The first one is realized for III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
the evaluation of the resonances of one, two, and nine coupled We first consider the case of a single one- and two-hole ping-
ping-pong balls. An overview of the experiment and its schematic pong ball submitted to an incoming acoustic wave of sound

J. Appl. Phys. 134, 144502 (2023); doi: 10.1063/5.0160267 134, 144502-3

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13 October 2023 15:49:54

FIG. 3. Assembly and diagram of the experiment carried out for the measurement of the resonance response of single and coupled resonators.

pressure level (SPL) 91 dB. The geometrical parameters, defined in two resonant frequencies are shifted to, respectively, 350 and
Fig. 1, are taken equal to R = 2 cm, e = 0.5 mm, and r = 1 mm. The 516 Hz, with a decrease in their quality factors (solid lines). This
acoustic wave is launched in front to the hole with a frequency phenomenon arises from the dissipation of the acoustic energy at
sweep ranging from 200 to 600 Hz. The amplitude of the wave is the opening by viscous interaction at the solid–fluid interface.
recorded inside the ping-pong ball and reported as output data. The experimental results shown in Fig. 6(b) represent the fil-
Figure 6(a) shows the calculated frequency spectrum of the SPL for tered frequency spectrum of the SPL recorded inside the ball with a
a ball with one and two openings without taking losses into microphone surrounded by an adhesive to prevent sound leakage
account (red and blue dashed lines). One can see the occurrence of into the air [Fig. 6(c)]. For each system, a resonance peak appears
a resonant frequency peak at, respectively, 380 and 545 Hz. When at, respectively, 350 and 515 Hz, in good agreement with the
introducing the losses, using the thermoviscous acoustic model, the numerical results obtained when considering the damping.

FIG. 4. (a) Ball drilling process using a drilling machine, and (b) a wooden cube for the simplification of the drilling process, with (c) the end result 4 cm ping-pong ball of
1 mm drilled hole.

J. Appl. Phys. 134, 144502 (2023); doi: 10.1063/5.0160267 134, 144502-4

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FIG. 5. (a) Photo of the reverberation box (up) and schematic representation (down), positioning the loudspeaker, the metasurface, and the inside (Mic1) and outside
(Mic0) microphones. (b) Photo of the setup from the top with the foam, the metasurface, and the outside microphone (Mic1). (c) Arrays of (10 × 9) ping-pong balls drilled
with one hole (sample 1), and five holes (sample 2) of radius 2 mm.

13 October 2023 15:49:54

We then discuss the effect of coupling two HRs, considering paper.36 Decreasing the distance between two similar HRs lifts the
two ping-pong balls B1 and B2, each drilled with two holes, and degeneracy of the resonance into two distinct peaks, symmetric and
placed in a face-to-face position. The calculated SPL frequency antisymmetric, whose frequency difference increases.
spectrum of the coupled system is shown Fig. 7(a), for a lossless These two resulting peaks appear, respectively, at 415 and
(dashed lines) and a lossy (solid lines) system. The SPL spectrum 610 Hz, i.e., on either side of the frequency of the single resonator
shows two peaks whose origin has been discussed in our previous with two openings (545 Hz). One can note that these two peaks are

FIG. 6. (a) Calculated frequency spectrum of the SPL for a single ping-pong ball pierced with one (red line) and two (blue line) openings of radius 1 mm, without (dashed
lines) and with (solid lines) consideration of thermoviscous losses. (b) Experimental results for a ping-pong ball with one and two openings (red and blue solid lines,
respectively). (c) Picture of the “microphone and ball” setup.

J. Appl. Phys. 134, 144502 (2023); doi: 10.1063/5.0160267 134, 144502-5

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FIG. 7. (a) Calculated frequency spectrum of the SPL for two ping-pong balls with two openings coupled together, without (dashed lines) and with (solid lines) consider-
ation of thermoviscous losses. The black (respectively red) color corresponds to the signal recorded inside the first (respectively second) ball. (b) Experimental measure-
ment for the coupled balls with a detection inside the first (black) and the second ball (red) based on (c) the “microphones and coupled balls” setup.

13 October 2023 15:49:54

FIG. 8. Experimental time evolution of the detected sound signal for the coupled ping-pong balls with double openings, recorded inside the first (up) and second (bottom)
ball, at the frequency of the first (left) and second (right) resonant peak.

J. Appl. Phys. 134, 144502 (2023); doi: 10.1063/5.0160267 134, 144502-6

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FIG. 9. (a) Eigenmodes calculation of the nine-ball connected resonator. Numerical (b) and experimental (c) SPL recorded inside the central ball of a lossless (dashed
lines) and lossy (solid line) system.

preserved by the insertion of thermoviscous losses, showing never- In order to confirm the existence of the two peaks, a time
theless lower amplitude in addition to lower quality factors. The recording of the signal, p(t) inside each ball is reported in Fig. 8,
difference in amplitude between the two signals recorded inside the coming from the extraction of the chirp signal over 10 ms, at the
first and the second ball comes from the asymmetry of the system frequencies of the two peaks. One can clearly see that, at the low-
with respect to the incoming wave, which first reaches the left ball. frequency peak (370 Hz), the signals are in phase while at the
Experimentally, two ping-pong balls with two openings are higher frequency one (560 Hz), the two signals are in phase oppo-
glued together and placed in a face-to-face position, as shown in site. It means that the first resonance is symmetric while the second
Fig. 7(c). The system is then excited from the left by a chirp signal one is antisymmetric with respect to the plane between the
where the frequency increases linearly as a function of time. To get two balls.

13 October 2023 15:49:54

the final spectrum, we recorded the case of the connected balls As demonstrated just before, it appears that the coupling of
with and without holes and made the difference between the two the resonators represents a good opportunity to generate multiple
SPL. Figure 7(b) represents the experimental filtered SPL frequency resonances in the frequency spectrum. To go further and enhance
spectrum recorded, respectively, inside the first (B1) and second this property, we studied a finite system made up of nine ping-pong
(B2) ball. The shape of the measured spectrum resembles that of balls, connected to each other by openings of radius 2 mm. Each
the calculated ones considering the damping, with however a better ball has, therefore, been pierced with four holes, allowing the con-
reproduction of the low-frequency peak. nection in both y and z directions. We performed the eigenmode

FIG. 10. Calculated frequency spectrum of the transmitted SPL through a metasurface made (a) of one-hole (blue, black) and five-hole (red, green) balls of radius 1 (blue,
red) and 2 mm (black, green). The calculation is performed without (dashed line) and with the thermoviscous losses (solid line). (b) Transmission spectrum through the
five-hole metasurface, changing the lattice parameter a from 4.5 to 7 cm then 9 cm.

J. Appl. Phys. 134, 144502 (2023); doi: 10.1063/5.0160267 134, 144502-7

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calculation of the system and found, as expected, nine modes eigenmodes (i), (v), and (ix) for which the pressure in the
shown in Fig. 9(a). We found three sets of modes, namely, two central ball is different from zero. Moreover, among all the
dipolar modes degenerated two times [(ii), (iii) and (vii), (viii)], modes, only the totally symmetric ones (i), (v), and (ix) are com-
two others which change sign under a π/2 rotation [(iv) and (vi)], patible with the symmetry of a normal acoustic excitation. As
and finally three modes totally symmetric [(i), (v), and (ix)]. before, when the thermoviscous losses are taken into consider-
The resonance properties of the nine-ball resonator struc- ation, the three peaks are shifted toward the low frequencies
ture have been tested both numerically and experimentally with a decrease in amplitude. The experimental demonstration
under the excitation of an acoustic plane wave launched in the was carried out by gluing nine balls together, positioning the
direction of propagation x. For the sake of experimental facili- microphone in the middle of the central resonator. The experi-
ties, the pressure has been detected in the central ball, as shown mental data, presented in Fig. 9(c), capture the three peaks
in the inset of Fig. 9(c). Figure 9(b) presents the numerical cal- obtained in the numerical calculation with a good agreement.
culation of the SPL, considering the lossless (dashed lines) and We then considered a periodic array of balls drilled with one
the lossy (solid line) system. Three peaks appear in the fre- or five openings of 1 or 2 mm, forming an infinite metasurface in
quency spectrum, which can easily be associated with the the (y, z) plane.

13 October 2023 15:49:54

FIG. 11. (a) Calculated transmitted SPL for a metasurface of one-hole balls alone (black line) then deposited on a plexiglass stiff board (red lines). The calculation is per-
formed without (dashed line) and with the thermoviscous losses (solid line). (b) Representation of the real part of the pressure field at the frequencies of dips A and B,
and peak C. The radius of the hole is 2 mm and the incident wave is sent normally to the plexiglass plate with a sound pressure level SPL = 91 dB. [(c) and (d)] Same as
(a) and (b) for a metasurface constituted of five-hole drilled balls.

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We first studied the case of a set of ping-pong balls drilled have proceeded to the calculation of the pressure field at the corre-
once with a 1 mm hole and arranged according to a square lattice. sponding frequencies [Fig. 11(c)]. One found that dip A corre-
As described in Sec. II and shown in Fig. 5(a), the acoustic plane sponds to the resonance of the ping-pong ball with a high pressure
wave is launched from the bottom, face to the plexiglass board. inside the ball in a phase opposition with the incident wave and a
Each opening is, thus, oriented face to the outgoing air medium. low transmission of the field after the metasurface. Dip B and peak
The transmitted pressure is then recorded with the help of a detec- C come from a mode localized in the air gap between the ball and
tor located 12.5 cm after the metasurface, as depicted in Fig. 2. the plexiglass board where the pressure is mostly confined. When
Figure 10(a) reports the evolution of the calculated SPL where the the vibration of the mode is in phase opposite to the incoming
blue lines correspond to the 1 mm hole case carried out with (solid wave, the transmission becomes zero and dip B occurs. Inversely,
line) and without (dotted line) the thermoviscous losses. when the vibration is in phase with the incoming wave, the signal
The resonance appears clearly as a narrow dip around 400 Hz, is transmitted, leading to peak C. This asymmetric feature is known
which widens considerably and almost disappears when the thermo- as a Fano-like resonance.41–43 A resonance similar to the one at the
viscous losses are considered. When enlarging the hole radius to origin of the asymmetric peak has also been observed by
2 mm, the dip becomes slightly deeper and larger, shifting to higher Lagarrigue et al. considering a 2D model of a split ring resonator
frequencies (black lines). These effects are enhanced when adding four embedded in a porous matrix (see Fig. 4 in Ref. 44). The authors
openings, making the connection between the ping-pong balls in the y have shown that energy can be trapped between the inclusions and
and z plane (red and green curves). To understand the origin of the a rigid backing.
broadening, Fig. 10(b) compares the transmission spectrum of a meta- Figure 11(c) presents the case of five-hole ping-pong balls
surface consisting of five-hole balls by changing the lattice parameter. metasurface coupled to the plexiglass board. The Fano-like reso-
As we can see, changing the lattice parameter from 9 to 4.5 cm widens nant peak (B–C) is still present at almost the same frequencies as
subsequently the bandgap while the resonant frequency is almost before, while dip A now appears at higher frequencies due to the
unchanged. This result demonstrates that the widening of the stop larger number of holes. A consequence of this shift is then that
band comes from the coupling between the ping-pong balls. now dip A appears in between dip B and peak C. Figure 11(d)
To perform the experience, it has been necessary to deposit shows the corresponding field maps at the frequencies of A, B, and
the ping-pong balls on a stiff plexiglass board of thickness 3 mm, C where the pressure field is localized both in the air gap between
covering the reverberation box [see Fig. 5(b)]. For this reason, we the resonator and the ball, and inside the resonator. This result
investigated numerically the configuration of the metasurface comes from the presence of the two modes in the same frequency
coupled to the plexiglass board (Fig. 11). In what follows, the ping- range.

13 October 2023 15:49:54

pong balls have been drilled with a radius of 2 mm. Finally, the experimental measurements have been carried out
Figure 11(a) shows the case of the one-hole ping-pong balls with the help of the reverberation box for the one- and five-hole
metasurface coupled to the plexiglass board (red dashed line). In drilled set of (9 × 10) ping-pong balls. In the first case [Fig. 12(b)],
the transmission curve, one can see the occurrence of two dips, A dips A and B are well captured experimentally while for the second
and B, and a peak C compared to only one dip when the metasur- one [Fig. 12(b)] dip B is slightly shifted below 1000 Hz. The reason
face is alone. To understand the origin of these three features, we could come from the contact area between the metasurface and the

FIG. 12. Experimental transmitted SPL spectrum recorded at 12.5 cm after the ping-pong ball metasurface deposited on the plexiglass stiff board, when the balls are
drilled with (a) one and (b) five holes (red curves), compared to the plexiglass board alone (black line).

J. Appl. Phys. 134, 144502 (2023); doi: 10.1063/5.0160267 134, 144502-9

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thermoviscous effects in the calculations. We believe that using the

ping-pong balls represents a simple and easy way to control the
scattering and transmission of sound at the subwavelength scale.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This result is part of a project that has received funding from
the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
program INSPIRE under the Marie Skłodowska Curie Grant
Agreement No. 813424.

AUTHOR DECLARATIONS
Conflict of Interest
The authors have no conflicts to disclose.

Author Contributions
FIG. 13. Calculated frequency spectrum of the transmitted SPL for a metasur- R. Sabat: Conceptualization (equal); Data curation (equal); Formal
face of five-hole balls deposited on a plexiglass stiff board without thermovis- analysis (equal); Investigation (equal); Methodology (equal);
cous losses with a surface of contact Sc of (a) 10 (black line) and 28 mm2 (red
line). The radius of the hole is 2 mm and the incident wave is sent normally to
Software (equal); Validation (equal); Writing – original draft
the plexiglass plate with a sound pressure level SPL = 91 dB. (equal). E. Cochin: Investigation (equal); Methodology (equal);
Writing – review & editing (equal). M. Kalderon: Methodology
(equal); Writing – review & editing (equal). G. Lévêque:
Conceptualization (equal); Software (equal); Supervision (equal);
plexiglass board which, in addition, is not fully regular in the Writing – review & editing (equal). I. Antoniadis: Writing –
experimental sample. Indeed, as seen in the numerical calculation review & editing (equal). B. Djafari-Rouhani: Conceptualization
of Fig. 13, changing the contact surface from 10 to 28 mm2 shifts (equal); Supervision (equal); Writing – review & editing (equal).

13 October 2023 15:49:54

dip B from 950 to 1250 Hz. Y. Pennec: Conceptualization (equal); Funding acquisition (equal);
Supervision (equal); Writing – review & editing (equal).
IV. CONCLUSIONS
In this work, we have exploited simple and low-cost ping-pong DATA AVAILABILITY
balls to perform acoustic metasurfaces of finite and infinite size. The data that support the findings of this study are available
We demonstrated numerically, with the help of the finite element from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
method, and experimentally, through a homemade setup, the effect
of drilling one and two times a single ping-pong ball. As expected,
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