Elastic characterization of closed cell foams from impedance tube absorption tests

A method is presented to determine the bulk elastic properties of isotropic elastic closed-cell foams from impedance tube sound absorption tests. For such foams, a resonant sound absorption is generally observed, where acoustic energy is transformed into mechanical vibration, which in turn is dissipated into heat due to structural damping. This article shows how the bulk Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, and damping loss factor can be deduced from the resonant absorption. Also, an optimal damping loss factor yielding 100% of absorption at the first resonance is defined from the developed theory. The method is introduced for a sliding edge condition which is an ideal condition. Then, the method is extended to a bonded edge condition which is more easily achievable and additionally enables the identification of the Poisson's ratio. The method is experimentally tested on expanding closed-cell foams to find their elastic properties in both cases. Using the found properties, sound absorption predictions using an equivalent solid model with and without surface absorption are compared to measurements. Good correlations are obtained when considering surface absorption.