Slow-Sound-Based Delay-Line Acoustic Metamaterial

Periodic structures composed of quarter-wavelength or Helmholtz resonators have been widely used in the design of acoustic metamaterials. An interesting phenomenon achievable through hybridization in such structures is the slow sound, which results from the strong dispersion produced by the local resonances. It gives rise to many applications such as deep subwavelength sound absorbers or metadiffusers. All the applications proposed so far have been analyzed only in the frequency domain (steady state). In this work, we propose a passive treatment that can be used in room acoustics, which requires considering the time domain and all multiple reflections. We analytically design a delay line from a metasurface made of Helmholtz resonators, using slow-sound propagation. We prove numerically and experimentally that such structures can delay a pulse and thus reproduce the sound perception of a propagation over a given distance, larger than the actual size of the treatment. The limitations of real-time pulse propagation, dispersion, and losses on audio fidelity are discussed. © 2022 American Physical Society.