Design and analysis of nonlinear-transformation-based broadband cloaking for acoustic wave propagation

Abstract

A coordinate-transformation method can be used to design invisibility cloaks for many types of waves, including acoustic waves. The traditional method for designing a cloak depends on a transformation from a virtual space to a physical space. Previous acoustic cloaks that are mainly designed with linear-transformation-based acoustics have drawbacks that acoustic wave trajectories in the cloaks cannot be controlled and tuned. This work uses a nonlinear mapping from a ray trajectory perspective to construct acoustic cloaks with tunable non-singular material properties. Use of a ray trajectory equation is a straightforward and alternate way to study propagation characteristics of different types of waves, which allows more flexibility in controlling the waves. A broadband cylindrical cloak for acoustic waves in an inviscid fluid is realized with layered non-singular, homogeneous, and isotropic materials based on a nonlinear transformation. Some advantages and improvements of the invisibility nonlinear-transformation cloak over a traditional linear-transformation cloak are analyzed. The invisibility capability of the nonlinear-transformation cloak can be tuned by adjusting a design parameter that is shown to have influence on the acoustic wave energy flowing into the region inside the cloak. Numerical examples show that the nonlinear-transformation cloak is more effective for making a domain undetectable by acoustic waves in an inviscid fluid and shielding acoustic waves from outside the cloak than the linear-transformation cloak in a broad frequency range. The methodology developed here can be used to design nonlinear-transformation cloaks for other types of waves.