Acoustic Properties of Kapok Fibre

Abstract

Noise pollution has become an important burning issue in today’s modern industrial era after Air and Water pollution. Noise adversely affects human health and decrease productivity in various environments. The present study tries to study the acoustic properties of natural hollow fiber-kapok to develop a cost-effective and eco-friendly sound absorbing material as an alternative of conventional sound absorbing material which is harmful to the environment. Therefore, sound absorbing material consist of a blend of Natural hollow fibres Kapok and Modal were used to produced needle-punched nonwoven fabrics. A nonwoven needle punch method to produce fabrics was selected due to its technical merits and low production cost. Different nonwoven needle punched samples were produced by varying blend ratio, web mass per unit area, needle stroke and needle depth. After conducting several pre-trial, designs of the experiment was plan using Response surface methodology - Central composite design (RSM-CCD) method. Sound absorption coefficients of the sample were measured at a different frequency of incident sound using impedance tube test method ISO 10534-2. It was observed that sample with a higher percentage of kapok fiber showed higher sound absorbency at higher Frequency of 2000 to 6000 HZ. It was also found sound absorption coefficient increased with the increased in mass per unit area, needle stocks and needle depth.