Journal of Material Sciences & Engineering

Development of Non-Woven Composite Materials using Reclaimed Fibers for Sound Absorption

Abstract

Alemayehu Assefa

Sound absorption behavior is an important requirement for the human life today, since noise affects the capability of day to day activities and even causes various health problems. Sound absorbent textile materials, especially non-woven composite structure of reclaimed materials have low production costs, low specific gravity and are aesthetically appealing. In this research the use of reclaimed cotton and polyester fiber for the development of sound absorptive non-woven composite materials has been explored. Three different blend ratios of reclaimed cotton and polyester fibers that is 25:75, 40:60 and50:50 have been used. The reclaimed cotton and polyester non-woven composites are characterized for their physical properties, such as thickness, areal density, bulk density, porosity and sound absorption characteristics in the frequency range of 250HZ-2000HZ. The values of sound absorption coefficient and noise reduction coefficient obtained signify that the reclaimed polyester fiber non-woven composite possess very good sound absorption behavior in the entire frequency range. Before compressed reclaimed cotton/polyester nonwoven composite of 25:75 blend ratio with high bulk density and low porosity is found to give the excellent performance when used by provided that air gap behind the reclaimed cotton/polyester non-woven composites.