An advanced nanoparticle reinforced carbon fiber laminates for low frequency sound insulation

Abstract

Low frequency noise is a common engineering problem in the industrial field. This study utilizes graphite particles to enhance the low frequency sound insulation of carbon fiber laminates significantly. The effects of grasphite particles with different mass and mesh on sound insulation of laminates are investigated by theory and experiment. The analytical model is proposed based on the Galerkin method for the laminates’ motion equations. The effective elastic properties of the samples are calculated using the Halpin-Tasi model and the rule of mixture. Two groups of samples are prepared for sound insulation measurement. The comparison between the theoretical and experimental results shows that the theory can well predict the sound insulation of the nanoparticle reinforced laminates. A significant improvement in low-frequency sound transmission loss of 3–8 dB is achieved without altering the laminates' thickness. However, the mesh variation of the graphite particles has little effect on the sound insulation of laminates.