US-20260126208-A1 - BROADBAND ACCOUSTIC METAMATERIAL

US20260126208A1US 20260126208 A1US20260126208 A1US 20260126208A1US-20260126208-A1

Abstract

The broadband acoustic metamaterial disposed within or proximate a server. The broadband acoustic metamaterial includes a body forming a plurality of ducts that have respective open ends configured to be in communication with moving air within or around the server, respective closed ends, respective lengths between the open ends and the closed ends, and respective dimensions (e.g., cross-sections or distances between walls that form the ducts) that are constant throughout the lengths. The ducts are configured to attenuate sound through destructive interference, where the lengths of the ducts correspond to respective target frequencies to attenuate. By using adjacent ducts with different lengths, broadband attenuation may be achieved in a space efficient manner. Furthermore, the ducts may be folded which can provide additional space conserving benefits.

Inventors

Darrin Troy VALLIS
Paul Cameron MERCER

Assignees

AMD DESIGN, LLC

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20250923

Claims (20)

1 . A broadband acoustic metamaterial to be disposed within or proximate a server, the broadband acoustic metamaterial comprising: a body forming a plurality of ducts, the ducts having: respective open ends configured to be in communication with moving air within or around the server; respective closed ends; respective lengths between the open ends and the closed ends; and respective dimensions that are constant throughout the lengths.
2 . The broadband acoustic metamaterial of claim 1 , wherein the broadband acoustic metamaterial is a planar broadband acoustic metamaterial.
3 . The broadband acoustic metamaterial of claim 2 , wherein the planar broadband acoustic metamaterial is a folded planar broadband acoustic metamaterial.
4 . The broadband acoustic metamaterial of claim 1 , wherein the broadband acoustic metamaterial is a tubular broadband acoustic metamaterial.
5 . The broadband acoustic metamaterial of claim 4 , wherein the tubular broadband acoustic metamaterial is a truncated tubular broadband acoustic metamaterial.
6 . The broadband acoustic metamaterial of claim 4 , wherein the tubular broadband acoustic metamaterial is a folded tubular broadband acoustic metamaterial.
7 . The broadband acoustic metamaterial of claim 1 , wherein the ducts are disposed in a row.
8 . The broadband acoustic metamaterial of claim 7 , wherein the row extends along a direction of the moving air such that the moving air moves across the open ends sequentially.
9 . The broadband acoustic metamaterial of claim 1 , wherein the ducts are disposed in at least two adjacent rows.
10 . The broadband acoustic metamaterial of claim 9 , wherein the body forms one or more separation walls between the respective adjacent rows.
11 . The broadband acoustic metamaterial of claim 1 , wherein the lengths are defined along respective centroid paths between respective walls that form the ducts.
12 . The broadband acoustic metamaterial of claim 11 , wherein at least one of the centroid paths has at least one 90 degree bend.
13 . The broadband acoustic metamaterial of claim 11 , wherein at least one of the centroid paths has at least one 180 degree bend.
14 . A server comprising: one or more fans configured to generate moving air within the server; and one or more broadband acoustic metamaterials disposed within a path of the moving air, the broadband acoustic metamaterials comprising: respective bodies forming respective pluralities of ducts, the ducts having: respective open ends configured to be in communication with the moving air; respective closed ends; respective lengths between the open ends and the closed ends; and respective dimensions that are constant throughout the lengths.
15 . The server of claim 14 , wherein at least one of the broadband acoustic metamaterials is disposed within an intake flow area of the path.
16 . The server of claim 14 , wherein: the server includes a disk drive; and at least one of the broadband acoustic metamaterials is configured to attenuate frequencies associated with the disk drive.
17 . The server of claim 14 , wherein the broadband acoustic metamaterials comprise a first broadband acoustic metamaterial disposed within an intake flow area and a second broadband acoustic metamaterial disposed within an outlet flow area.
18 . An aisle proximate to one or more servers, the aisle comprising: a broadband acoustic metamaterial including: a body forming a plurality of ducts, the ducts having: respective open ends configured to be in communication with moving air within the aisle; respective closed ends; respective lengths between the open ends and the closed ends; and respective dimensions that are constant throughout the lengths.
19 . The aisle of claim 18 , wherein the aisle is a hot or cold aisle.
20 . The aisle of claim 18 , wherein: the aisle includes a door; and the broadband acoustic metamaterial is attached to the door.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application 63/701,998, filed Oct. 1, 2024, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. FIELD This disclosure is directed to sound reduction in and/or around servers. BACKGROUND Servers often utilize fans to draw air around/through components within the servers to mitigate heat generated by the components. Even in water-cooled servers, fans are used to mitigate heat generated by secondary components within the servers (e.g., components other than processing systems). Modern servers (e.g., cloud-computing servers, artificial intelligence (AI) and/or machine learning (ML) servers, networking servers, block-chain servers, storage servers, etc.) are performing more tasks than ever before, and, as such, are also generating more heat than ever before. To compensate for the increased heat, air flow requirements have also increased. Increased air flows often means increased noise from the fans and/or from the air moving through the servers. Further compounding the noise problem is the sheer number of servers that are often collocated. So called “server farms” can contain thousands of servers with compounding noise problems. Noise in such environments is often unwieldy (e.g., require cumbersome hearing protection) and can also negatively affect neighboring rooms (e.g., offices). All of the subject matter discussed in this section is not necessarily prior art and should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its discussion in this section. Along these lines, any recognition of problems in the prior art discussed in this section or associated with such subject matter should not be treated as prior art unless expressly stated to be prior art. Instead, the discussion of any subject matter in this section should be treated as part of the inventor's approach to the particular problem, which, in and of itself, may also be inventive. SUMMARY Described herein is broadband acoustic metamaterial for a server. The broadband acoustic metamaterial may be an apparatus configured to be disposed within or proximate the server. The broadband acoustic metamaterial includes a body forming a plurality of ducts that have respective open ends configured to be in communication with moving air within or around the server, respective closed ends, respective lengths between the open ends and the closed ends, and respective dimensions (e.g., cross-sections and/or distances between walls that form the ducts) that are constant throughout the lengths. The broadband acoustic metamaterial may be one of many configurations as discussed below in the Detailed Description. Also described herein is a server containing one or more of the above broadband acoustic metamaterials. The broadband acoustic metamaterials may be configured similarly or different (e.g., have ducts with similar lengths or ducts with different lengths). For example, a first broadband acoustic metamaterial may be disposed in a first area of the server and configured to attenuate sound corresponding to a first set of frequencies, and another broadband acoustic metamaterial may be disposed in a second area of the server and configured to metamaterial sound corresponding to a second set of frequencies. Furthermore, the broadband acoustic metamaterials may have different configurations to accommodate space constraints and/or performance objectives of the respective areas. The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments, and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and features will become apparent by reference to the drawings and the following detailed description. In the drawings, like reference numbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments are described with reference to the following drawings, wherein like labels refer to like parts throughout the various views unless otherwise specified. The sizes and relative positions of elements in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the shapes of various elements are selected, enlarged, and positioned to improve drawing legibility. The particular shapes of the elements as drawn have been selected for ease of recognition in the drawings. One or more embodiments are described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a server with a plurality of broadband acoustic metamaterials installed therein. FIG. 2A illustrates an example of a planar broadband acoustic metamaterial. FIG. 2B illustrates a section view of the planar broadband acoustic metamaterial of FIG. 2A. FIG. 3 illustrates another example of a planar broadband acoustic metamaterial. FIG. 4A illustrates an example of a tubular broadband acoustic metamaterial. FIG. 4B illustrates a section view of the tubular b