Wave-based control for nonreciprocal acoustics using a planar array of secondary sources

Abstract

There has been significant interest in the design of nonreciprocal acoustic devices that allow acoustic waves to be perfectly transmitted in one direction, whilst the acoustic waves propagating in the opposite direction are blocked or reflected. Previously proposed nonreciprocal acoustic devices have broken the symmetry of transmission by introducing nonlinearities or resonant cavities. However, these nonreciprocal acoustic devices typically have limitations, such as signal distortions and the bandwidth over which nonreciprocal behaviour can be achieved is narrow. This paper will investigate how active control can be used to minimise the transmitted and reflected waves independently to achieve nonreciprocal sound transmission and absorption using a planar array of secondary sources in a two-dimensional environment. The advantage of the proposed active control system is that it is fully adaptable, which means that the directivity of nonreciprocal behaviour can also be reversed. The performance of the proposed wave-based active control system is investigated for a range of angles of incidence and its performance limitations are explored.