Study and development of vegetable fiber-based eco-materials with noise reduction properties

Abstract

Whether for health reasons or for comfort, the reduction of noise in our living spaces is a crucial issue. Nowadays, porous materials such as polyurethane foams or glass wool are still widely used to reduce the noise levels emitted in the fields of building and transport. However, these materials show a certain number of limits. Beyond the general renewed interest in the use of natural materials, some materials such as bast fibers show performance often unknown and unexploited, particularly in the acoustic and vibration field. This paper focus in particular on the potential of thin nonwoven fibrous materials (less than 10 mm) with a mono or bilayer structure and made from natural vegetable fibers (scutched flax tow, cottonized flax, hemp, kenaf and recycled jute), bonded with a thermoplastic fiber which is polypropylene in our case. In this study, the differences of performance between the selected vegetable fibers as well as the interest of the hydroentangled (spunlaced) nonwovens compared to needlepunched nonwovens are pointed out. The interest of bilayer structures is also highlighted.