About

Benjamin Beck is an Assistant Research Professor affiliated with the Applied Research Laboratory and the Center for Acoustics and Vibration at Penn State University. His work is associated with the acoustics program within the College of Engineering, which is recognized as a leading resource for graduate education in acoustics in the United States. The program offers degrees including Master of Engineering in Acoustics, Master of Science in Acoustics, and Doctor of Philosophy in Acoustics. His research focuses on acoustics, contributing to the interdisciplinary graduate program that emphasizes advanced study and research in this field. Based at Penn State's University Park campus, Beck is involved in academic and research activities related to acoustics, supporting the university's mission to advance knowledge and education in this discipline.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Acoustics
• Physics
• Optoelectronics
• Materials science
• Algorithm
• Telecommunications
• Composite material
• Structural engineering
• Engineering
• Aerospace engineering
• Optics
• Geology

Selected publications

• Scaling effects of frequency and material properties on the design of constrained layer damping

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2025-04-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Engineers can prefer to non-dimensionalize effects to allow for understanding of a response of systems at various configurations, sizes, or speeds. Great insight can be found while interrogating the physics across independent variables. This work outlines the relationship between the physical scale and the stiffness and damping properties of viscoelastic materials within constrained layer damping when applied to thin structures. Previous work has shown that peak frequency of the damping of viscoelastic materials can be shifted to account for changes in scale of systems when damping is applied without a constraining layer. However, when the constraining layer is applied, the dominant deformation within the damping layer becomes shear instead of bending which controls the stiffness of the underlying thin, flexible structure. Here the methods of non-dimensionalizing the stiffness, loss factor, and geometry of a constrained layer system is presented along with a discussion on the effects of frequency to optimize the system for maximum vibration attenuation.

  PublisherDOI

• Results of an interlaboratory study on vibration response of 3-D printed acoustic materials

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2025-10-01

  article

  Additive manufacturing is widely utilized for printing architected acoustic materials. Most works report only a subset of all printing parameters used to fabricate structures under study, making reproduction of published results a challenge. Additionally, a wide range of commercial printers is available on the market, so the parameters used successfully by one printer may not produce an identical structure when using another printer. In this round robin study, sets of samples comprising beams with and without resonant inclusions were printed at six institutions using a shared geometry file. Study participants were encouraged to use whatever fused deposition modeling (FDM) printers they had available and all were instructed to use the same filament material. All of the samples were measured at a single laboratory location in order to reduce measurement uncertainty. The results of the study indicated significant variability in both dimensional accuracy and dynamic performance metrics measured across samples. This talk will outline the study parameters and report dimensional as well as dynamic characterization results.

  PublisherDOI

• Effects of printer variation on vibration response of fused deposition modeling-fabricated elastic beams with symmetric and asymmetric resonators: A round robin study

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2024

  • Materials science
  • Acoustics
  • Physics

  Additive manufacturing has expanded rapidly as a production tool due to its ease of use for rapidly producing parts. The most common polymer-based additive approach is fused deposition modeling (FDM) which uses plastic filament to build parts additively, one line at a time, to build a 3D shape. FDM printers are ubiquitous in university, government and industry settings, making them ideal for mass-production of shared designs across institutions. While it is commonly known that FDM finished products have variations due to differences in printer model and slicing and extrusion settings, little has been done to quantify the effects of these variations on elasto-dynamic response. In this study, a multi-institutional round robin approach is used to quantify the printer-to-printer variations of a structure comprised of a thin beam with attached resonators. The parameters of the round robin study involve printing the same geometry, with the same base material, on whatever FDM-type printers are available at each of six contributing institutions. All samples were then sent to a common location and tested on the same apparatus to limit experimental variability. This presentation will discuss the design of the study, test and modeling efforts, and a summary of results.

  PublisherDOI

• An improved measurement of frequency-dependent shear properties of highly compliant materials using a dynamic Kibble’s method

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2023-10-01

  articleSenior author

  While methods exist to characterize the Young’s modulus and loss factor of viscoelastic materials, there are fewer methods to characterize the shear modulus and loss factor in shear. We previously presented an experimental apparatus that applied dynamic torque on rod-like viscoelastic materials with diameters of 0.5 cm to 2 cm and lengths of 10 cm to 30 cm. The torque was applied using Lorentz forces and measured using a dynamic version of Kibble’s method (similarly, the Watt method). Here, we present a modified version of this apparatus that has several notable improvements over the previously reported version. Improvements include a stronger, more uniform magnetic field and a direct measurement of the angular response of the specimen using a laser and photo-diode configuration. Moreover, the direct measurement of the angular response eliminates the need to know other geometric quantities (such as the radius of the electromagnetic coil), which further reduces the uncertainty of the measured torque. The measurement of the angular response and applied torque are fit to models in order to determine the shear moduli and loss factor. We demonstrate this improved technique on rod-like specimens of different highly-compliant viscoelastic materials.

  PublisherDOI

• Optimization of a structural Acoustic Black Hole embedded in a stringer-stiffened composite laminate panel

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2023-10-01

  article

  Many modern airframes are made of composite laminate materials due to their low mass but strong loadbearing capability. Carbon fiber composite laminates allow for a strong and lightweight aircraft, but create unhealthy levels of disruptive and uncomfortable noise within the fuselage. This work looks at the possibility of a structural Acoustic Black Hole (ABH) as a passive vibration damping solution for a common stringer-stiffened airframe panel. A 1-D symmetrically damped ABH was integrated vertically into the cross section of a stringer stiffener of a composite laminate plate. A multi-objective evolutionary algorithm was employed to search for the optimal ABH dimensions in terms of the tradeoff between weight, axial linear buckling load, and integrated vibration response. Computational results predicted the ability for damped ABH-stiffeners of a certain dimension to have less vibrational response than others with comparable linear density and axial strength. Mass normalized, non-tapered and ABH-tapered preliminary panels were manufactured and tested. These results showed a capability of ABH stiffeners to decrease vibrational response in the attached skin, more prominently above their cut-on frequency. Stiffened panels were manufactured to optimized specifications and their experimental results validate the presence of an optimal ABH dimension to achieve passive vibration damping in a system with mass and structural constraints.

  PublisherDOI

• Design of a 2D plate adaptable metamaterial unit cell using finite elements

  2022-04-20

  articleSenior author

  Acoustic metamaterials are composite materials exhibiting effective properties and acoustic behavior not found in traditional materials. Through periodic subwavelength resonant inclusions, acoustic metamaterials enable steering, cloaking, lensing, and frequency band control of acoustic waves. A common drawback of acoustic metamaterials is that the properties are limited to narrow frequency bands. Investigation of practical active and adaptable acoustic metamaterials is valuable in achieving wider operation frequency bands. In this work, we explore different geometric configurations for a cutaway plate metamaterial unit cell with the purpose of vibration suppression. Resonators cut directly in a thin uniform plate function as local resonators. We examine the wavenumber band structure seeking wide and low frequency band gaps in the vicinity of the resonant frequencies of the local resonators. Variations in the geometry of the unit cell are examined to obtain band gaps for broadband vibration suppression. Wave shapes of the unit cell associated with the band gaps are also examined to aid in the parametric design of the unit cell. Additionally, as a means of tuning stiffness of the local resonators we attach piezoelectric actuators to the cutaway resonators with the goal of increasing the bandwidth of the vibration suppression and enabling frequency tunability of the system.

  PublisherDOI

• Incorporation of acoustic black hole stiffeners into composite airframes for reduction of noise radiation

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2022

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Structural engineering
  • Materials science

  Stiffened composite panels are commonly used in aerospace structures, because they are lightweight, while maintaining a high load-bearing ability. However, their high stiffness-to-mass ratio makes them efficient noise radiators. In rotorcraft cabins made with composite panels, for example, the internal noise levels can be quite high such that pilot and passenger communication and comfort are disrupted. This has led to a need for innovative noise reduction strategies for composite rotorcraft panels. A specialized stiffener, which incorporates the acoustic black hole (ABH) effect into the cross section, is proposed to improve the damping of stiffened composite panels. By incorporating the damping concept into the stiffeners, the panel’s radiated noise can be reduced while maintaining the weight advantages and panel strength. To determine the advantages and trade-offs of this concept, numerical models have been developed and incorporated into an optimization scheme. Computational studies reveal promising results from the optimized ABH stiffeners as compared to a baseline panel with traditional stiffeners.

  PublisherDOI

• An optimization problem for maximum vibration suppression in reconfigurable one dimensional metamaterials

  New Journal of Physics · 2021 · 8 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Physics
  • Acoustics

  Abstract Acoustic metamaterials have already been shown to be effective for vibration reduction and control. Local resonances in the metamaterial cause waves at frequencies within band gaps to become evanescent, thus preventing wave propagation through the material. Active and adaptable local resonances enables the band gaps to be shifted in frequency and increased in bandwidth. Since metamaterial local resonances are usually composite, methods to specify optimal component configurations are helpful for passive metamaterials and almost necessary for adaptable metamaterials, where the metamaterial must be reconfigured for optimal performance at various frequency ranges. To assess band gap locations and bandwidths for metamaterials, a wavenumber spectrum is commonly computed. Commonly, a parameter study of adaptable unit cell variables will be performed to assess optimal configurations of adaptable metamaterials. In this paper, the complex wavenumber is proposed as a direct optimization objective for reconfiguration of active adaptable acoustic metamaterials for maximum vibration suppression at a frequency range of choice. By directly maximizing the imaginary part of the wavenumber, associated with wave attenuation, the unit cell configuration maximum vibration suppression can be obtained for an operating frequency of choice. Additionally, since the optimization problem requires constraints for feasible solutions and the example active piezoelectric metamaterial system shown here is electrically unstable at some configurations, we also explore an experimental method for bounding the optimization problem. Numerical results of the optimization problem are presented.

  PublisherDOI

• Measurement of frequency-dependent shear properties of highly compliant materials using Kibble’s method

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2021-10-01

  article

  We present a method to determine the frequency-dependent properties of highly-compliant materials by measuring the response of rod-like specimens subjected to an applied torque. Kibble’s method, which utilizes a velocity measurement and two electrical measurements, is used to calculate the applied torque on the specimen as a function of frequency. Shear modulus and loss factor in shear are determined by fitting mechanical models to transfer functions between the applied torque and torsional response of the sample. We demonstrate this technique on a prototype apparatus using different polymer materials and specimen geometry. Estimates of the shear modulus and loss factor in shear are determined over a range of frequencies that include the first six torsional resonant modes. These material properties are compared with data obtained using a commercial Dynamic Material Analyzer wherein the samples are excited in a bending mode.

  PublisherDOI

• Experimental determination of wavenumber dispersion for active adaptable acoustic metamaterials

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2020-10-01

  articleSenior author

  Acoustic metamaterials are composite materials exhibiting effective properties and acoustic behavior not found in traditional materials. Through periodic subwavelength resonant inclusions, acoustic metamaterials enable steering, cloaking, lensing, and frequency band control of acoustic waves. A common drawback of acoustic metamaterials is that the properties are limited to narrow frequency bands. Investigation of practical active and adaptable acoustic metamaterials is valuable in achieving wider operation frequency bands. Numerical predictions of wave propagation behavior in acoustic metamaterials are commonly presented in the form of elastic band structure diagrams. In previous work, the complex wavenumber dispersion properties of the metamaterial medium were proposed as optimization objectives for obtaining optimal adaptable metamaterial unit cell configurations for vibration reduction. To verify numerical wavenumber predictions, the current work presents an experimental method to obtain the wavenumber dispersion. First, the metamaterial beam is excited with a broadband pulse. Time domain responses are recorded at many locations on the structure. The resulting time series data is processed with a two dimensional Fourier transform. The result is a wavenumber versus frequency plot. The procedure is useful for plate and beam type metamaterial structures wherein local resonances and active inclusions cause wave attenuation if the above experimental procedures can be feasibly carried out.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Manuel Collet

  École Centrale de Lyon

  21 shared

• Kenneth A. Cunefare

  Georgia Institute of Technology

  17 shared

• Massimo Ruzzene

  University of Colorado Boulder

  11 shared

• Amanda Hanford

  Pennsylvania State University

  7 shared

• Aaron Stearns

  Pennsylvania State University

  6 shared

• Peter Kerrian

  ATA Engineering (United States)

  5 shared

• Noah H. Schiller

  Langley Research Center

  5 shared

• Dean E. Capone

  Pennsylvania State University

  4 shared