Nested Fluted Cups for Wideband Soundwave Attenuation

The patent employs nested frustoconical cups where smaller cups are positioned inside larger cups, creating a multi-layered acoustic baffle assembly. This nesting structure increases the surface area and complexity of soundwave interaction without proportionally increasing manufacturing difficulty, as each cup can be independently formed and then assembled. The nested configuration allows soundwaves to traverse multiple paths and interfaces, improving attenuation efficiency across broader frequency ranges.

The patent utilizes frustoconical (curved) cup shapes instead of simple cylindrical or planar structures. The curved surfaces of the frustoconical cups create varying angles of soundwave reflection and refraction, enhancing phase scrambling effects. The conical geometry with radially extending ridges and grooves further complicates soundwave paths, improving attenuation performance while the forms can be created through standard metal forming processes.

The acoustic baffle assembly is segmented into multiple discrete frustoconical cups with varying dimensions, ridge configurations, and groove patterns. Each cup segment interacts with different frequency components of soundwaves, creating a broadband absorption effect. The segmentation allows for modular manufacturing where identical or similar cup components can be produced in batches using the same tooling, maintaining manufacturing efficiency while achieving versatile frequency coverage through the assembled configuration.

Different regions of the acoustic baffle assembly exhibit locally optimized characteristics: inner cups have different dimensions and ridge patterns compared to outer cups, with each location designed to handle specific frequency ranges. The radially extending ridges and grooves are positioned at specific locations on each cup surface to create localized phase scrambling zones. This local quality differentiation enables broad frequency range coverage while each individual component remains manufacturable using standard processes.

The radially extending ridges and grooves on the frustoconical cup surfaces create mechanical interactions with incident soundwaves, forcing them to follow serpentine paths rather than straight trajectories. This mechanical disruption of soundwave propagation causes phase scrambling as waves reflect off the ridges, refract through the grooves, and interact with adjacent cups. The effect is analogous to mechanical vibration in that the structured surface features actively manipulate the acoustic field, creating multiple phase-shifted wave components that interfere destructively to attenuate sound.

The acoustic baffle assembly functions as a composite acoustic structure, combining multiple frustoconical cup materials (typically metal) with air gaps between cups, and incorporating surface features (ridges and grooves) that create acoustic impedance variations. This composite configuration—solid metal cups, air spaces, and surface geometries—works together to achieve superior phase scrambling and sound attenuation compared to单一材料或简单结构，while each individual component remains manufacturable using conventional metal forming and assembly techniques.