Development of a metamaterial for acoustic and architectonical improvement of window design

The development of windows which can address the issue of high noise levels while maintaining natural ventilation has drawn significant attention recently. However, there are limitations to traditional-Gouble glazing together with duct designs. Previously, window systems have been developed based on the local resonant stopband of acoustic metamaterial (AMM) to achieve dual functions of noise reduction and natural ventilation. In this study, a new effort is made to develop a window system with foldable origami metamaterial, which conceptually proposes a novel approach for acoustic and ventilation design. The proposed device allows air exchange between the interior and exterior domains, and it forms an omni-directional acoustic metacage in the folded state. This paper elaborates the design concept of the proposed device and the important design parameters. The sound reduction performance is investigated using Finite Elements Method (FEM) simulations. The numerical method developed in this work can facilitate the optimisation of origami metamaterial for real window designs.