Investigation of sound transmission loss of natural fiber/rubber crumbs composite panels

Abstract

Natural fibers and their waste are widely used all over the world, and their production has been increasing continuously. But, the rubber crumbs from used tire disposal are nonbiodegradable and present significant problems about their end-of-life given a critical environmental impact. These problems require recycling policies to provide the collection and recycling of used clothing, textile wastes, and rubber crumbs. In this work, the acoustic properties of insulator panels from the combination of textile fibers and rubber crumbs material were analyzed. Insulator panels demonstrated a good sound transmission loss (STL) characteristic, especially at high frequencies. The STL of the manufactured panels from a combination of fiber (cotton, wool, and Kapok) and rubber crumbs was investigated at the different sound frequencies. Results indicated that the fiber/rubber crumbs panel had a significant STL profile of 47 dB, 40 dB, and 35 dB, for Kapok, wool, and cotton, respectively. The addition of polylactic acid meltblown nonwoven fabric on the surface of the rubber crumbs side considerably increases the STL by 20%.

Research on the Sound Insulation Performance of Composite Rubber Reinforced with Hollow Glass Microsphere Based on Acoustic Finite Element Simulation

“…Furthermore, the weighted STL of the pure composite rubber reached 12.72 dB, 18.03 dB, 21.37 dB and 23.80 dB with the thickness of 1.0 mm, 2.0 mm, 3.0 mm and 4.0 mm, respectively, which exhibited an excellent sound insulation performance and took little occupied space. The results were basically consistent with the experimental data expressed in the literatures [ 52 , 53 , 54 ].…”

Ground tire rubber and coffee silverskin as sustainable fillers in EPDM compounds for rubber‐to‐steel bonded systems in roofing applications

“…In our case, the STL varies in the range of 30–50 dB as a function of the frequency. These results show a good sound insulation feature which is in accordance with the literature where EPDM and other elastomers were used as rubber matrices for sound insulation applications 46–48 . The sound behavior of rubber composites is closely related to the damping properties of the compound, hence STL is directly dependent on molecular structure, sidechain complexity, polarity, intermolecular force, and density of the elastomeric matrix 49 .…”

“…These results show a good sound insulation feature which is in accordance with the literature where EPDM and other elastomers were used as rubber matrices for sound insulation applications. [46][47][48] The sound behavior of rubber composites is closely related to the damping properties of the compound, hence STL is directly dependent on molecular structure, sidechain complexity, polarity, intermolecular force, and density of the elastomeric matrix. 49 Since rubbers show a viscoelastic behavior, thanks to their molecular relaxation characteristic, they present an out-of-phase deformation (hysteresis) when subjected to alternating stress such as sound waves.…”

Resource Recycling with the Aim of Achieving Zero-Waste Manufacturing

“…Despite this huge waste of generated textiles, only a paltry 15% of post-consumer textile waste was collected. In 2015, 15% was collected for reuse or recycling whereas the figure reduced to 14.7% in 2018 [80,81]. However, only about 1% of the collected waste textiles are recycled [82].…”