A Preliminary Study on the Sound Absorption of Self-Facing Date Palm Fibers

Abstract

Sound absorption of self-facing natural date palm fibershas been investigated.A single layer sample of the fibers was tested for its sound absorption properties. The sample was then faced with the originally date palm fiber netted structure. Experimental measurements were conducted on the impedance tube at the acoustic lab, Faculty of Engineering, UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia, to determine the sound absorption coefficient.The single layer was also tested using an aluminum perforated plate, as facing, for comparison purposes.The results show a good improvement in the sound absorption for the self-facing panel for the whole frequency range. However, when using the aluminum perforated panel an improvement in the sound absorption was observed only above 2500 Hz. The effect of introducing air gap thickness was studied. The results show improvement for the sound absorption the low frequency.