In this study, the sound absorption properties of randomly packed granular materials were estimated. Generally, it is difficult to construct a general mathematical model for the arrangement of randomly packed granular materials. Therefore, in this study, an attempt was made to estimate the sound absorption coefficient using a theoretical analysis by introducing data from computed tomography (CT) scans, as the tomographic images of CT scans correspond to the slicing and elemental division of packing structures. In the theoretical analysis, the propagation constants and characteristic impedances in the voids were obtained by approximating each tomographic image as a void between two parallel planes. The derived propagation constants and characteristic impedances were then treated as a one-dimensional transfer matrix in the propagation of sound waves, and the transfer matrix method was used to calculate the normal incident sound absorption coefficient. The theoretical value of the sound absorption coefficient was derived using the effective density to which the measured tortuosity was applied. As a result, for the theoretical values considering the tortuosity, in many cases, the theoretical values were close to the measured values. For the theoretical values, when both the surface area and tortuosity were considered, the peak sound absorption frequency moved to a lower frequency and was in general agreement with the measured values.
Keywords: granular material; micro-CT scan; random packing; tortuosity.