In this article, rice hull (RH) was used in the moulding of polyurethane (PU) foam system. The article analyzed the participation of RH in the chemical reaction of PU synthesis with Attenuated Total Reflection‐Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy method. Besides, the influence of RH on the formation of pore structure along with the acoustic performance such as sound impedance rate, acoustic reflection factor, sound absorption coefficient, and transmission loss of the products were studied with the Transfer Function Method. The results indicated that RH significantly influenced the uniformity of pore diameter in PU foam. As the content of RH increased, the sound absorption peak shifted toward lower frequency region. And the sound absorption coefficients increased till a threshold value of RH content. POLYM. COMPOS., 34:1847–1855, 2013. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers

A robust procedure for the prediction of the dynamic response of layered panels within a SEA wave-context approach is proposed hereby. The dispersion characteristics of two dimensional composite orthotropic structures are predicted using a Wave Finite Element method. By manipulating the mass and stiffness matrices of the modelled structural segment a polynomial eigenvalue problem is formed, the solutions of which correspond to the propagation constants of the waves travelling within the structure. The wavenumbers and group velocities for waves comprising out of plane structural displacements can then be calculated. Using the numerically extracted wave propagation data the most important SEA quantities of the structure, namely the modal density and the radiation efficiency of each wave type are calculated. The vibroacoustic response of the structure under a broadband diffused excitation is then computed within a SEA approach. The impact of the symmetric and the antisymmetric vibrational motion of the panel on its sound transmission loss is exhibited and the approach proves robust enough for thin as well as for thick layered structures.

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