Sound transmission loss of double plates with an air cavity between them in a rigid duct

In this paper, the sound transmission loss (STL) of thin double plates with an air cavity between them in a rigid duct is considered using an analytical approach. The vibration motion of the plate and sound pressure field are expanded in terms of an infinite series of the modal functions. Under the plane wave condition, a low frequency solution is derived by including the first few symmetric modes. It is determined that the peak frequencies of the double plates coincide with those of each single plate. When the two plates are identical, the STL becomes zero at the natural frequencies of the single plate. However, when the two plates are not identical, the STL is always greater than zero. The location and amplitude of the dips are investigated using an approximate solution when the cavity depth is very small. It is observed that dividing the single plate into two plates with an air cavity in between degrades the STL in the low frequency range, while the equivalent surface mass density is preserved. However, when the cavity depth is not small, the STL of the single plate can be smaller than that of the double plates.