Novel Application of Glass Fibers Recovered From Waste Printed Circuit Boards as Sound and Thermal Insulation Material

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using glass fibers, a recycled material from waste printed circuit boards (WPCB), as sound absorption and thermal insulation material. Glass fibers were obtained through a fluidized-bed recycling process. Acoustic properties of the recovered glass fibers (RGF) were measured and compared with some commercial sound absorbing materials, such as expanded perlite (EP), expanded vermiculite (EV), and commercial glass fiber. Results show that RGF have good sound absorption ability over the whole tested frequency range (100-6400 Hz). The average sound absorption coefficient of RGF is 0.86, which is prior to those of EP (0.81) and EV (0.73). Noise reduction coefficient analysis indicates that the absorption ability of RGF can meet the requirement of II rating for sound absorbing material according to national standard. The thermal insulation results show that RGF has a fair low thermal conductivity (0.046 W/m K), which is comparable to those of some insulation materials (i.e., EV, EP, and rock wool). Besides, an empirical dependence of thermal conductivity on material temperature was determined for RGF. All the results showed that the reuse of RGF for sound and thermal insulation material provided a promising way for recycling WPCB and obtaining high beneficial products.

Eco-Materials with Noise Reduction Properties

“…Sun et al [54] presented a study on the acoustical and thermal properties of glass fibers recovered from waste printed circuit boards. They showed that the sound absorption ability of this material can meet the requirement of national standards over a wide frequency range.…”

Preparation of sound‐insulating material based on discarded cow hair

“…The absorption of sound waves is the main method used to reduce noise . In various types of materials, most sound‐insulating materials are porous; these include wool insulating materials, glass fiber materials, carbon fiber materials, polymer–hollow microsphere composite materials, and aluminum foam . France Natpural Co. introduced a natural insulating material, BATIPLUM, which is mainly composed of processed duck feathers, wools, and natural fibers.…”

Applying an experimental design to improve the manufacturing process and properties of a novel sound absorber with recycled fibres from End-of-Life-Tyres

“…In the field of using and characterising recycled fibrous materials, it is worth emphasising the works [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. The impact of compression on fibrous products for soundproofing was analysed by Castagne`de et al [8], which analysed the influence of compression on certain properties like porosity, resistivity, tortuosity and form factors.…”