Sound Absorption of Sustainable Polymer Nanofibrous Thin Membranes Bonded to a Bulk Porous Material

Tomáš Ulrich and Jorge P. Arenas
Additional contact information
Tomáš Ulrich: Faculty of Mechatronics, Informatics and Interdisciplinary Studies, Technical University of Liberec, Studentská 2, 46117 Liberec 1, Czech Republic
Jorge P. Arenas: Institute of Acoustics, University Austral of Chile, 567 Valdivia, Chile

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: In this paper, the standardized characterization of nanofibrous membranes used to coat three porous bulk acoustical materials (melamine foam, a polyester textile, and an MDF perforated panel) is presented. The membranes were manufactured from recyclable Polyamide 6 (PA6) and water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) using the needleless electrospinning technique. This resulted in very thin membranes that had high porosity and very high airflow resistivity. The membranes were collected in a high-permeability nonwoven substrate. Measured results in both an impedance tube and a reverberation room showed significant improvements in the sound absorption performance of the bulk materials after incorporating the nanofibrous layer. The application of the membranes on the surface of a traditional air-backed perforated panel also improved the sound absorption, exhibiting a broad peak of sound absorption in the low-frequency range. This was particularly true when the membrane area weight was increased. It is concluded that these materials, manufactured as described in this paper, can be alternatives to glass, mineral, and ceramic fibrous materials, which have high carbon footprints.

Keywords: sound absorption; nanofibrous; permeable membrane; electrospinning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/6/2361/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/6/2361/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:6:p:2361-:d:333834

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().