Seminar on Aeroacoustic Metamaterials and Acoustic Black Holes: New Solutions for Old Problems

25 Feb 2026 10.30 AM - 11.30 AM MAE Meeting Room D (Blk N3.2-02-59) Current Students, Public

Associate Professor Wonju Jeon

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

This seminar will be chaired by A/P Ng Bing Feng.

Seminar Abstract

In this talk, I’ll present recent advances in acoustic and elastic meta-structures developed in Wave Lab (KAIST), aiming at practical applications to real-world problems in our daily life and various industries. The first example is an ultra-light (20 times lighter than existing materials) soundproofing meta-panel to insulate broadband noise generated from electric vehicles or advanced air mobilities (AAM), with the aid of negative mass density in low-frequency band and negative bulk modulus in high-frequency band. The second one is an aero-acoustic metamaterial, termed acoustic meta-liner, to insulate noise in a duct while allowing flow, by designing ultra-thin acoustic meta-surface with the consideration of visco-thermal losses in deep-subwavelength-scale Helmholtz resonators. The third one is a meta-damper to suppress structural vibration in beams or plates using waveguide absorbers based on Archimedean spiral acoustic black holes. For the three meta-structures, we present how to design them theoretically and validate their performance experimentally with a couple of audiovisual demonstrations.

Speaker's Biography 

Wonju Jeon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) and leading the Wave Energy Control Laboratory. Before joining KAIST in 2014, he worked for National Institute for Mathematical Sciences to bridge the gap between applied mathematics and engineering sciences for 7 years. He received his Ph.D. in Aerospace engineering from KAIST in 2006, with a focus on mathematical theory of diffraction aiming at reducing fan noise. He aims to develop new and innovative solutions for long-standing problems of sound and vibration occurring in various industries such as home appliances and future mobilities. To overcome the limitation of existing materials or technologies, he proposed new concepts of meta-structures (‘meta’ in Greek means ‘beyond’ in English) such as ‘spiral acoustic black holes’, ‘complex-valued impedance tiles’, ‘ultra-light soundproofing meta-panels’ and ‘sound-absorbing metasurface'. He gave keynote lectures at ICTCA 2025 (16th International Conference on Theoretical and Computational Acoustics), Inter-Noise 2020 (49th International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering) and 23rd Workshop of the Aeroacoustics Specialists Committee of the Council of European Aerospace Societies (2019). He organizes “Physical acoustics and elastic waves: acoustic metamaterials and phononic materials” session at Inter-Noise 2026 and “Metamaterials and acoustic black holes in vibro-acoustics and air” session at Forum Acusticum 2026.

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