Effect of pineapple leaf fibre composite material thickness on sound absorption performance.

Abstract

Pineapple leaf fibre has the potential to be used in the manufacture of composite materials for noise control and reduction applications. This study explores the effect of PALF-Latex composite material thickness on sound absorption performance. Composites with different PALF to Latex ratios namely 100% PALF, 90%PALF:10%PALF, 80%PALF:20%PALF, 70%PALF:30%Latex and 60%PALF:40%Latex each with a thickness of 10 mm, 20 mm and 30 mm were tested using an impedance tube to obtain a sound absorption coefficient in the range of 50 Hz to 1600 Hz. It was found that sound absorption has a significant linear relationship with thickness. The thickness of the 30 mm composite produces a high sound absorption performance, especially for the 100%PALF:10%Latex composite. The sound absorption performance is comparable to kenaf-PVA composite with a thickness of 30mm and better than glasswool with a thickness of 50mm. The performance of composite 100%PALF:10%Latex with a thickness of 20mm is also better than glasswool with a thickness of 25.4 mm. In conclusion, PALF-Latex composite has the potential to be used as a sound absorbing material and needs further study related to acoustic performance in the future.