Design and development of smart acoustic devices: Invisibility Cloaks and Super Lenses

Recent advances have led to the possibility of creating devices which could be used to cloak an object from sound/elastic waves or to provide lenses which can focus sound/elastic waves with much better resolution than is conventionally possible. These devices have a wide field of application which ranges from protecting buildings from earthquakes to improving ultrasound imaging for industry and medical applications. This project would look at the smart sensing and actuating technologies, control system design, modelling and simulation advances which would be required to create these devices. It is closely related to the current high impact field of metamaterials, which are materials which have subwavelength properties which arise from their physical structure, as opposed to their chemical composition. These materials have been associated with the concept of negative effective density and elasticity. Their counterpart in electromagnetics has lead to significant media interest due to association with concepts such as a Harry Potter style invisibility cloak.

Knowledge of at least one of the following fields would be beneficial, but not necessarily required for research students to work in this field.

- Physical systems (either mechanical, electrical or electromagnetic) including modelling and analysis methods
- Control theory and analysis methods
- Principles of vibration/acoustic theory
- Sensor and actuator technology