Sound absorption and compression properties of perpendicular-laid nonwovens

Abstract

This study presents an investigation into the sound absorption behavior and compression properties of perpendicular-laid nonwovens. Seven types of perpendicular-laid nonwovens produced by vibrating and rotating perpendicular lappers were selected. Nonwovens with varying thickness and areal density were prepared by the heat-pressing method to investigate the effect of structural parameters such as thickness and areal density on sound absorption ability. Measurements of sound absorption properties were carried out with a Brüel and Kjær measuring instrument. The effect of manufacturing techniques on sound absorption performance and compression properties was investigated. The effect of porosity on sound absorption ability was studied. The influence of density and fiber orientation angle on compression properties was analyzed. The results show that samples prepared by vibrating perpendicular lapper exhibit better compression properties, whereas there is no significant influence of two manufacturing techniques on sound absorption performance. The increase of areal density results in improvement in the sound absorption ability. The increase of thickness can improve the sound absorption coefficient in the low-frequency range, but decrease of the coefficient occurred in the high-frequency range. A quadratic relationship between porosity and sound absorption ability has been found. The results also show that compressional resistance has a strong relation with density – the correlation coefficient is 0.95, indicating that the compressional resistance is directly proportional to the density of perpendicular-laid nonwovens. The results indicate that the perpendicular-laid nonwovens with higher initial fiber orientation angle have better compression properties.