Experimental and calculated research on a large band gap constituting of tubes with periodic narrow slits

A new band gap structure composed of a square array of parallel steel tubes with narrow slits is presented. The propagation of acoustic waves in a two-dimensional composite medium constituted of slit tubes in air is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The band gap is calculated with the finite element method in which the acoustic-solid coupling is taken into account. The transmissions of the band system with both different single-width narrow slits and multi-width narrow slits are analyzed. Experimental measurements show that the transmission through an array of slit tubes with periodic narrow slits drops to noise level throughout frequency interval in good agreement with the calculated forbidden band. The large band gap and low starting frequency is obtained by arranging different width of slits embedded in the tubes. The experiments and theoretical results show that this new band gap structure has an especial character based on the resonant cavity playing an important role on the band gap besides the traditional Bragg interference.