The acoustic characteristics of dual-layered porous nonwovens: a theoretical and experimental analysis

Abstract

The normal incidence sound absorption coefficient of single-layered porous materials predicted using some prediction models is well known. The published acoustic behaviors prediction models, such as Biot model, Zwikker and Kosten model, Delany and Bazley model, and Champoux and Allard model, can give acceptable prediction results by only taking specific flow resistivity and material thickness as independent variables to estimate the normal incidence sound absorption coefficient. However, the existing literature fails to provide proper knowledge regarding the acoustic characteristics of dual-layered porous nonwoven absorbers. So, the aim of this paper was to propose a theoretical acoustic model for dual-layered porous nonwoven absorber and to verify the proposed model experimentally. In theory aspect, the study focused on the extension algorithm of the Zwikker and Kosten model for dual-layered nonwoven absorber. The theoretical analysis of the impact of thickness and porosity of outer and inner layer on sound absorption coefficient was detailed using numerical simulation method. In experiment aspect, we particularly designed 20 dual-layered nonwoven absorbers with four types of meltblown polypropylene nonwoven materials and five types of hydroentangled E-glass fiber nonwoven materials firstly. Secondly, the calculated sound absorption coefficients using the proposed model were compared with the measured ones of the 20 dual-layered nonwoven absorbers at 250, 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz. Experimental results indicate that the measured and the calculated data have very similar trend with the change of thickness, porosity, and the sound frequency, apart from the obvious difference between them at low frequency.