Acoustical Behavior of Treated Wood Dust-Filler for Polymer Foam Composite

Abstract

Wood dust filler-polymer foam composite has been studied and proved to have ability to absorb sound. In this study, treated rubber and Meranti wood dust named as RA and MA respectively was use as the filler. This study was developed to compare the behavior of sound absorption based on treated filler and particle size of wood dust. By choosing the size of 355 and 710 μm, three different percentages has been selected which is 10%, 15% and 20% for both type of wood dust. These samples has been tested by using Impedance Tube test for sound absorption coefficient (α) measurement and Noise Reduction Coefficient measurement (NRC) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to determine the diameter of pore for selected size and type of wood dust-polymer foam composite. The pore size and structure was influence the sound absorption behavior of each sample. 355 μm-polymer foam composite of every percentage loading shows the uniform pore structure as compared to 710 μm of particle size. NRC results shows that increasing pore size has decrease the NRC value. It is therefore, concluded that the sound absorption coefficient for eachsound absorbing material, with different sizes of wood dust particles, types of wood dust and the percentages of wood dust loading in polymer foam matrix effect the sound absorption behavior.