Sound deadening material plays an important role in making cars comfortable and quiet, but most people don’t give it much thought.
Nissan engineers are one of the exceptions as they’ve developed a lightweight alternative known as acoustic meta-material.
Set to be shown at CES this week, the acoustic meta-material is billed as a simple and innovative solution which consists of a lattice structure and plastic film. The latter “controls air vibrations to limit the transmission of wide frequency band noise (500-1200 hertz), such as road and engine noise.”
While sound deadening material is nothing new, the company noted that most materials used to block of this frequency band are constructed out of heavy rubber. This increases weight which is the enemy of performance and fuel efficiency.
Thankfully, the acoustic meta-material provides the same level of sound isolation despite weighing one-fourth as much. The advantages don’t end there as the simple structure means acoustic meta-material costs the same – or slightly less – than current materials. This means there shouldn’t be any tradeoffs, only benefits.
Nissan started research meta-materials over a decade ago in 2008. At the time, applications were relatively limited including use in “high-sensitivity antennas” for electromagnetic wave research. However, engineers looked for other possible applications involving sound waves and this eventually led to creating their own take on meta-materials.
There’s no word on when future models could use meta-materials, but Nissan noted mass production is needed to make it cost effective.
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