Effects of honeycomb panel's finite dimensions on acoustic performance for lightweight sound insulation

A honeycomb panel is considered as a lightweight sound insulation solution both numerically and experimentally. First, a unit cell with fixed and infinite periodic conditions is modeled, exhibiting high insulation levels up to the membrane's eigenfrequency. Closer to industrial applications, a numerical model is developed, where the fixed conditions are applied only on the sides of the finite honeycomb panel. Taking into account structural modes of longer wavelength with this configuration, the panel's first eigenfrequency occurs at lower frequency than the previous case, yielding to a reduced insulation power. Nevertheless, the low frequency performance obtained numerically on the honeycomb panel is validated with measurements under normal incidence plane waves and diffuse field excitations.