title: Measurements and empirical model of the acoustic properties of reticulated vitreous carbon.
abstract: Reticulated vitreous carbon (RVC) is a highly porous, rigid, open cell carbon foam structure with a high melting point, good chemical inertness, and low bulk thermal conductivity. For the proper design of acoustic devices such as acoustic absorbers and thermoacoustic stacks and regenerators utilizing RVC, the acoustic properties of RVC must be known. From knowledge of the complex characteristic impedance and wave number most other acoustic properties can be computed. In this investigation, the four-microphone transfer matrix measurement method is used to measure the complex characteristic impedance and wave number for 60 to 300 pore-per-inch RVC foams with flow resistivities from 1759 to 10,782 Pa s m(-2) in the frequency range of 330 Hz-2 kHz. The data are found to be poorly predicted by the fibrous material empirical model developed by Delany and Bazley, the open cell plastic foam empirical model developed by Qunli, or the Johnson-Allard microstructural model. A new empirical power law model is developed and is shown to provide good predictions of the acoustic properties over the frequency range of measurement. Uncertainty estimates for the constants of the model are also computed.
authors.affiliation: Civil and Architectural Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois 60616, USA. muehleisen@iit.edu
authors.forename: Ralph T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Muehleisena
authors.forename: C Walter
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Beamer
authors.forename: Brandon D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Tinianov