Resumen de Origami folds power roadside noise barrier
For homes near highways, blessed quiet may be just a few folds away. A barrier that relies on pre-crimped aluminum reduces acoustic energy by 90 per cent, so traffic noise once audible 1.6 kilometers away would only travel half a kilometer. Most roadside noise barriers are concrete walls, but sound can still bend over their rigid, flat tops and continue onward. Some barriers make use of hollow cylinders; but they only block sounds at certain frequencies. The new barrier, designed by Manoj Thota and Kon-Well Wang at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, gets around that problem using the Miura origami fold, which relies on preset creases.
