Broadband Sound Absorption and High Damage Resistance in a Turtle Shell-Inspired Multifunctional Lattice: Neural Network-Driven Design and Optimization

Incorporating acoustic and mechanical properties into a single multifunctional structure has attracted considerable attention in engineering. However, effectively integrating these sound absorption properties and damage resistance to achieve multifunctional structural designs remains a great challenge due to imperfect design methods. In this study, the inherent mechanical properties of turtle shells by introducing dissipative pores are leveraged to present a lattice structure that possesses both excellent sound-absorbing and high damage-resistant characteristics. To achieve acoustic optimization design, a universal high-fidelity neural network correction model is proposed to address the impedance calculation challenge in complex structures. Building upon this foundation, a multi-cell combination design enables to achieve high absorption through optimization with a low thickness of 50 mm, resulting in average sound absorption coefficients reaching 0.88 and 0.93 within the frequency ranges of 300–600 Hz and 500–1000 Hz, respectively. It is also found that the optimized structures exhibit exceptional damage resistance under varying relative densities via the coupling effect of the shell thickness on the acoustic and mechanical properties. Overall, this work introduces a novel paradigm for designing intricate multifunctional structures with acoustic and mechanical properties while providing valuable inspiration for future research on multifunctional structure design.