Influence of randomly placed resonant aggregates on the attenuation properties of metaconcrete: A numerical study

Concrete is a key material for many structural components in engineering, but its acoustic performance remains under discussion. Hence, the potential of the so-called metaconcrete has gained attention in research, mainly due to its capability to control vibrations and sound transmission when resonant aggregates are embedded in the concrete. These resonant aggregates are designed to have resonant frequencies regarding frequency bands of interest, so the interaction with the incident sound waves is attenuated within those frequencies. While available research has focused on the characterization of metaconcrete with a periodic arrangement of resonant aggregates, there is a gap regarding how their random allocation affects the characterization of metaconcrete. This study focuses on the numerical analysis of metaconcrete and the influence of randomly placed resonant aggregates on its attenuation properties. The numerical approach concentrates on the aggregate's material composition, location and volume fraction within the concrete to identify configurations that exhibit great wave attenuation. The results have shown that the attenuation effect is substantially advantageous when using a multi-frequency configuration for aggregates within the metaconcrete. Additionally, the random embedding of resonant aggregates offers a practical solution for their application in concrete structures.