Pine wood extraction by fermentation to improve its acoustical efficiency

Abstract

Wood is a main material in the construction of musical instruments and speaker boxes, especially in developed countries. This study investigated the changes in acoustic properties of pine wood during the processes of fermentation, water washing, and organic washing solvent. The results indicated that both methods of water washing and ethanol-acetone mixture washing of the samples improved the values of density, modulus of elasticity, elastic stiffness, acoustic coefficient, vibration damping, and acoustic conversion efficiency. The effect of ethanol-acetone mixture washing was greater than water washing the samples. Additionally, results revealed that pretreatment before ethanol-acetone mixture washing had the most effect on vibration damping and acoustic conversion efficiency values. In general, the values obtained from ethanol-acetone mixture washing resulted in more improvement in acoustic properties compared to water washing, but the results showed that the pretreatment before water washing had a greater effect on the values of density, modulus of elasticity, elastic stiffness, and acoustic coefficient.