Design of an improved impedance tube to measure sound absorption coefficients of flexible textile materials

Abstract

Textile materials have demonstrated significant potential in sound noise reduction due to their porous, lightweight, and easily processed nature. However, the current experimental setup for measuring the sound absorption of small-sized samples is expensive. Additionally, there is a lack of suitable equipment for measuring the sound absorption of flexible textiles as it is challenging to mount flexible samples into an impedance tube. This paper presents the design, fabrication, and testing of impedance tubes specifically designed for measuring the sound absorption coefficients of textile materials. The impedance tubes were designed based on the transfer function and two-microphone methods, with diameters of 100 mm and 30 mm. These tubes covered frequency ranges from 200–1600 Hz and 500–6400 Hz, respectively. Furthermore, improved sample holders were developed to mount flexible textile materials without altering the acoustic impedance characteristics of the front surface of the test sample. Validation experiments were conducted on melamine foams, and the results were compared with those obtained from the commercial B&K 4206 setup. The results obtained from the designed setup showed good agreement with those from the B&K 4206 system. The maximum error observed was 8% at 2800 Hz for the 30 mm diameter tube and 8.3% at 1600 Hz for the 100 mm diameter tube. Finally, the designed system was used to measure the sound absorption coefficients of textile materials with varying densities. The results obtained were consistent with the material properties, demonstrating the effectiveness of the designed setup.