Waste Tyre Textile Fibre Composite Material: Acoustic Performance and Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

The development of new sound absorbing materials and the transition to net zero emissions production have become inseparable. This paper investigates a new type of composite sound absorbing material made of waste tyre textile fibre (WTTF) and different binders: polyurethane resin (PU), polyvinyl acetate (PVA), and starch (POS). Non-acoustic and acoustic parameters were studied, and life cycle assessment was performed for the considered composite sound absorbing materials. The airflow resistivity was determined according to the ISO 9053-1 standard, while the sound absorption coefficient was determined according to the ISO 10534-2 standard, and the LCA was performed based on the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. Composite sound absorbing materials subjected to sound absorption coefficient tests showed results in the range of 0.04 to 0.99 and peaking in the frequency range of 800 to 2000 Hz, while airflow resistivity varied between 17.4 and 83.6 kPa⋅s/m2. The combination that gave the highest sound absorption coefficient was experimentally found to be PU composite material. Life cycle assessment results revealed that the lowest potential impact on the environment is obtained when composite materials are produced using starch as a binder and its total potential impact on the environment varied between 0.27 and 0.55 Pt, while the highest potential impact was observed by PU composites (0.33 ÷ 0.64 Pt). The results obtained experimentally and by LCA modelling revealed great attractiveness and promising development of composites using WTTF and different binders’ potential for sound absorbing applications.