Titel: Acoustic Textiles – sound absorption Autor: R. Senthil Kumar, S. Sundaresan, Dept.

of
Textile Technology, Kumaraguru College
of Technology, Coimbatore/India

Acoustic Textiles – sound absorption

Introduction
Noise is ubiquitous in industry. Noise has become serious environment pollution in the daily life of la-
bor and is an increasing public health problem according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO)
Guidelines for Community Noise. Noise can have the following adverse health effects: hearing loss,
sleep disturbances, tiredness, cardiovascular and psycho physiologic problems, performance reducti-
on, annoyance responses, and adverse social behavior. The proper surrounding for working becomes
a legitimate right of the workers and thus the modern machines carry special features such as reduced
level of noise generation. Acoustical material plays a number of roles that are important in acoustic
engineering such as the control of room acoustics, industrial noise control, studio acoustics and auto-
motive acoustics. The main aim of the paper is to give broad outlook about the textile materials used
in acoustic applications.

Noise Control
Noise is an unwanted sound and unfortunately most of the machines that have been developed for in-
dustrial purposes, for high speed transportation, or to make life more enjoyable are accompanied by
noise. A noise system can be broken down into 3 elements.
Noise Source – The element which disturbs the air
Noise Path – The medium through which the acoustical energy propagates from one point to
another
Noise Receiver – The person who could potentially complain about the quantity or level of noi-
se as perceived at same point

Sound Absorptive Materials

Materials that reduce the acoustic energy of a sound wave as the wave passes through it by the phe-
nomenon of absorption are called sound absorptive materials. They are commonly used to soften the
acoustic environment of a closed volume by reducing the amplitude of the reflected waves. Absorptive
materials are generally resistive in nature, either fibrous, porous or in rather special cases reactive re-
sonators. Classic examples of resistive material are nonwovens, fibrous glass, mineral wools, felt and
foams. Resonators include hollow core masonry blocks, sintered metal and so on. Most of these pro-
ducts provide some degree of absorption at nearly all frequencies and performance at low frequencies
typically increases with increasing material thickness.
Porous materials used for noise control are generally categorized as fibrous medium or porous foam.
Fibrous media usually consists of glass, rock wool or polyester fibers and have high acoustic absorpti-
on. Sometimes fire resistant fibers are also used in making acoustical products. Often sound barriers
are confused with sound absorbing materials. Generally materials that provide good absorption are
poor barriers. Unlike, barriers and damping materials, the mass of the material has no direct effect on
the performance of the absorptive materials.

Mechanism of Sound Absorption in Fibrous Materials

Some materials allow sound to easily enter it. These materials are called porous. Acoustic porous ma-
terials can have porosity greater than 90%. Common sound absorption materials are open cell foam
and fiber. Sound absorption is an energy conversion process. The kinetic energy of the sound (air) is

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Titel: Acoustic Textiles – sound absorption Autor: R. Senthil Kumar, S. Sundaresan, Dept. of
Textile Technology, Kumaraguru College
of Technology, Coimbatore/India

converted to heat energy when the sound strikes the cells or fibers. Hence, the sound disappears after
striking the material due to its conversion into heat.

Fig.1: Sound Absorptive Materials

The absorption of sound results from the dissipation of acoustic energy to heat. When sound enters
porous materials, owing to sound pressure, air molecules oscillate in the interstices of the porous ma-
terial with the frequency of the exciting sound wave. This oscillation results in frictional losses. A
change in the flow direction of sound waves, together with expansion and contraction phenomenon of
flow through irregular pores, results in a loss of momentum. Owing to exciting of sound, air molecules
in the pores undergo periodic compression and relaxation. This results in change of temperature. Be-
cause of long time, large surface to volume ratios and high heat conductivity of fibers, heat exchange
takes place isothermally at low frequencies. At the same time in the high frequency region compressi-
on takes place adiabatically. In the frequency region between these isothermal and adiabatic
compression, the heat exchange results in loss of sound energy. This loss is high in fibrous materials
if the sound propagates parallel to the plane of fibers and may account up to 40% sound attenuation.
So, the reasons for the acoustic energy loss when sound passes through sound absorbing materials
are due to:
Frictional losses
Momentum losses
Temperature fluctuations
The more fibrous a material is the better the absorption; conversely denser materials are less absorp-
tive. The sound absorbing characteristics of acoustical materials vary significantly with frequency. In
general low frequency sounds are very difficult to absorb because of their long wavelength. On the o-
ther hand, we are less susceptible to low frequency sounds.

Acoustic Textiles
Textiles are used in many applications involving acoustics, including:
Acoustic panels for workstations;
Automotive insulation
Upholstery in concert halls etc.

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Titel: Acoustic Textiles – sound absorption Autor: R. Senthil Kumar, S. Sundaresan, Dept. of
Textile Technology, Kumaraguru College
of Technology, Coimbatore/India

An acoustic textile, however, must have acoustic properties in its own. It must be specifically enginee-
red to absorb sound. In general terms, acoustic textiles fall in 2 classes of porous sound absorbers:
Bulky, high-loft textiles, which essentially behave as a rigid, porous sound absorber.
Light weight, compact woven and nonwoven textiles that behave as porous screen.
Bulk porous absorbers, such as fiberglass or mineral wool batts or blankets, and needle punched, re-
sin or thermally bonded fibrous textiles, are well known and all qualify as rigid porous absorbers. Flow
resistive screens can provide similar performance to the high-loft materials, without the bulk. Thin
lightweight acoustic textiles, such as INC Engineered Materials Deci-Tex range, act as flexible porous
screens.

Application of Sound Absorptive Materials

Sound absorptive materials are generally used to counteract the undesirable effects of sound reflecti-
on by hard, rigid and interior surfaces and thus help to reduce the reverberant noise levels. They are
used as interior lining for apartments, automotives, aircrafts, and ducts, enclosures for noise equip-
ments and insulations for appliances. Sound absorptive materials may also be used to control the res-
ponse of artistic performance spaces to steady and transient sound sources, thereby affecting the
character of the aural environment, the intelligibility of unreinforced speech and the quality of unrein-
forced musical sound.

Factors Influencing Sound Absorption of Nonwoven Materials

Studies on various parameters that influence the sound absorption properties of fibrous materials have
been published widely in the literature. A summary of those work are given below.

Fig.2: Sound Absorption Properties

1. Fiber Size:
An increase in sound absorption coefficient with a decrease in fiber diameter is reported. This is be-
cause, thin fibers can move more easily than thick fibers on sound waves. Moreover, with fine denier

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Titel: Acoustic Textiles – sound absorption Autor: R. Senthil Kumar, S. Sundaresan, Dept. of
Textile Technology, Kumaraguru College
of Technology, Coimbatore/India

fibers more fibers are required to reach an equal more fiber for same volume density which results in a
more tortuous path and higher airflow resistance. A study concluded that the fine fiber content increa-
ses NAC values. The increase was due to an increase in airflow resistance by means of friction of vis-
cosity through the vibration of the air. A study showed that fine denier fibers ranging from 1.5 - 6 de-
nier/filament (dpf) perform better acoustically than coarse denier fibers. Moreover it has been reported
that, micro denier fibers (less than 1 dpf) provide a dramatic increase in acoustical performance.

2. Fiber Surface Area:

There is a direct correlation between sound absorption and fiber surface area. The study explained the
fact that friction between fibers and air increases with fiber surface area resulting in a higher sound
absorption. Moreover it has been said that, in the frequency range 1125 Hz – 5000 Hz, fibers with ser-
rated cross sections (e.g., Kenaf) absorb more sound compared to ones with round cross sectional
area. The sound absorption in porous material is due to the viscosity of air pressure in the pores or the
friction of pore wall. Therefore, sound absorption increases with specific surface area of fiber with inc-
rease of relative density and friction of pore wall. Man made fibers are available in various cross-
sectional shapes for instance: hollow, trilobal, pentagonal and other novel shapes like 4DG fibers.
These cross sectional shapes can add acoustical value by providing more surface area than normal
round shaped fibers.

3. Airflow Resistance:
One of the most important qualities that influence the sound absorbing characteristics of a nonwoven
material is the specific flow resistance per unit thickness of the material. The characteristic impedance
and propagation constant, which describes the acoustical properties of porous materials, are governed
to a great extent by flow resistance of the material. Fibers interlocking in nonwovens are the frictional
elements that provide resistance to acoustic wave motion. In general, when sound enters these mate-
rials, its amplitude is decreased by friction as the waves try to move through the tortuous passages.
Thus the acoustic energy is converted into heat.

4. Porosity:
Number, size and type of pores are the important factors that one should consider while studying
sound absorption mechanism in porous materials. To allow sound dissipation by friction, the sound
wave has to enter the porous material. This means, there should be enough pores on the surface of
the material for the sound to pass through and get dampened. The porosity of a porous material is de-
fined as the ratio of the volume of the voids in the material to its total volume. In designing a nonwoven
web to have a high sound absorption coefficient, porosity should increase along the propagation of the
sound wave.

5. Tortuosity:
Tortuosity is a measure of the elongation of the passage way through the pores, compared to the
thickness of the sample. Tortuosity describes the influence of the internal structure of a material on its
acoustical properties. It is a measure of how far the pores deviate from the normal, or meander about
the material. It was stated that, tortuosity mainly affects the location of the quarter wavelength peaks,
whereas porosity and flow resistivity affect the height and width of the peaks. It has also been said by
the value of tortuosity determines the high frequency behavior of sound absorbing porous materials.

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Titel: Acoustic Textiles – sound absorption Autor: R. Senthil Kumar, S. Sundaresan, Dept. of
Textile Technology, Kumaraguru College
of Technology, Coimbatore/India

6. Thickness:
Numerous studies that dealt with sound absorption in porous materials have concluded that low fre-
quency sound absorption has direct relationship with thickness. The rule of thumb rule that has been
followed is the effective sound absorption of a porous absorber is achieved when the material
thickness is about one tenth of the wavelength of the incident sound. Peak absorption occurs at a re-
sonant frequency of one-quarter wavelength of the incident sound (ignoring compliance effect) . A stu-
dy showed the increase of sound absorption only at low frequencies, as the material gets thicker. Ho-
wever, at higher frequencies thickness has insignificant effect on sound absorption. When there is air
space inside and behind the material, the maximum value of the sound absorption coefficient moves
from the high to the low frequency range.

7. Density:
Density of a material is often considered to be the important factor that governs the sound absorption
behavior of the material. At the same time, cost of an acoustical material is directly related to its densi-
ty. A study showed the increase of sound absorption value in the middle and higher frequency as the
density of the sample increased. The number of fibers increases per unit area when the apparent den-
sity is large. Energy loss increases as the surface friction increases, thus the sound absorption coeffi-
cient increases. Less dense and more open structure absorbs sound of low frequencies (500 Hz).
Denser structure performs better for frequencies above than 2000 Hz.

8. Compression:
Not much has been published on the influence of compression on sound absorption behavior. A paper
showed that, compression of fibrous mats decreases the sound absorption properties. Under
compression the various fibers in the mat are brought nearer to each other without any deformation
(without any change in fiber size). This compression results in a decrease of thickness. Compression
resulted in an increase in tortuosity and airflow resistivity, and a decrease of porosity and thermal cha-
racteristic length (shape factor). Despite these physical parameter variations in the compressed mate-
rial, he stated that the reason for a drop in sound absorption value is mainly due to a decrease in
sample thickness. The influence of compression on sound absorption can play an important role in the
field of automotive acoustics. The seat padding in the vehicle is subjected to compression / expansion
cycles due to the passenger’s weight. This results in squeezing down the porous materials (fibrous or
cellular) which in turn results in variation of the above physical parameters.

9. Surface Treatments:
As said earlier acoustical materials are used inside buildings and these materials have to satisfy
norms such as: material should have good light reflecting behavior, should have a good appearance
and so on. Often when used inside buildings, acoustical materials are coated with paints or some fi-
nishes. Therefore, it is necessary to study the effect of these surface coatings on sound absorptive
behavior. It was found that, more open surface type materials suffer most from the application of paint.
So, it was suggested that a very thin layer of paint coating should be applied over the material surface.
This can be done with the help of spray gun. Sometimes, fibrous materials are covered with film in or-
der to improve the sound absorption properties at low frequencies by the phenomenon of surface vib-
ration of film.

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Titel: Acoustic Textiles – sound absorption Autor: R. Senthil Kumar, S. Sundaresan, Dept. of
Textile Technology, Kumaraguru College
of Technology, Coimbatore/India

10. Placement / Position of Sound Absorptive Materials:

It is a known fact that sound absorption of a material depends also on the position and placement of
that material. It has been reported that if several types of absorbers are used, it is desirable to place
some of each type on ends, sides and ceilings so that all 3 axial modes (longitudinal, transverse and
vertical) will come under their influence. In rectangular rooms it has been demonstrated that absorbing
material placed near corners and along edges of room surfaces is most effective. In speech studios,
some absorbents that are effective at higher audio frequencies should be applied at head height on
the walls. In fact, material applied to the lower portions of high walls can be as much as twice as effec-
tive as the same material placed elsewhere. Moreover, it is recommended that untreated surfaces
should never face each other.

11. Surface Impedance:

The higher the acoustic resistivity of a material, the higher is its dissipation, for a given layer of
thickness. At the same time the surface impedance of the layer also increases with resistivity, resulting
in a greater amount of reflections on the surface layer, giving a lower absorptivity capability. Moreover
the whole process is frequency dependent, so that for lower frequency bands the necessary layer
thickness increases as resistivity decreases.
Performance generally increases with an increase in frequency. Thus in real world applications, sound
absorptive materials are chosen according to the spectrum of sound being emitted. For example in au-
tomotive noise control, thinner materials that are capable of absorbing high frequencies are used for
headliners. At the same time, thicker materials capable of absorbing lower frequencies are used for
door panels and carpet backing. Thus, it is essential to know the range of frequencies that need to be
controlled in order to have effective use of sound absorptive materials.

Automotive Acoustic textile

Noise in the Car:
Car noise is essentially caused by the unit sound, the exhaust system noise, air-suction noise, rolling
and wind noises. All the sources mentioned emit noise directly. While the major part of the sound e-
nergy and is spread outwards, some of it reaches the car interior via the body, the running gear or di-
rectly. The airborne-noise transmissions or those transmitted via the car interior appear in diverse
ways, which partly influence each other. Both noise-reducing measures at the sound sources as well
as specific interference the sound transmission mechanisms are important considerations in the a-
chievement of low car noise levels. Within a car the acoustic materials can be used in structures such
as: door panels, headliners, luggage compartment, under bonnet/hood liner, floor carpet underlay mat.

Fig.3: Locations of Acoustic Materials in a Car

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Titel: Acoustic Textiles – sound absorption Autor: R. Senthil Kumar, S. Sundaresan, Dept. of
Textile Technology, Kumaraguru College
of Technology, Coimbatore/India

Air borne noise absorption:

Although the goal of sound insulation between the car's noise sources and the passenger cell has
been pursued at great expense, a quantitative method of sound insulation has not yet been achieved
in practice. The cutouts for steering columns, for pedals as well as the limited space for acoustic mea-
sures enable sound transmissions into the passenger cell. However, there is a possibility that airbor-
ne-noise levels can be reduced by absorption.
The seats, the roof paneling and the floor carpet form 65 % of the equivalent surface, if designed for
absorption. The original state is represented by a car with average equipment (of the upper middle
class), the absorbing treatment is designed in a such way that it is achieved using easily implemented
components. By the improvement in absorption, an average level of reduction of approx. 3 dB (measu-
red at the ear of the front passenger) could be attained.
Floor carpet as a sound absorber:

Fig.4: Carpet as sound absorber in cars

Actual acoustic concepts concerning the floor carpet a higher absorption potential take into account,
where the main focus is lower frequencies. Due to the high values of wave lengths at low frequencies,
which are to be minimized, it is necessary to enhance the absorbing layer of the floor carpet. The ab-
sorption potential of a tufted carpet as well as the pile density and the yarn are to be taken into ac-
count besides the thickness of the absorbing layer. The value of alpha is higher than the entire fre-
quency range, if the piles are longer. An appropriate as well as justifiable maximum is reached with a
pile length of 8 mm. Greater pile length may resulting, for instance, a certain danger of lane appear-
ance. The pile density of tufted material results from the number of pile fabrics in the transverse direc-
tion and the number of stitches in the longitudinal direction.
A carpet is defined as "open" or as "closed", according to the length of piles. The higher the values for
the pile density and for frequency, the higher the value for the absorption coefficient alpha will be. In
case tufted carpets, there are two distinct types of yarn: the "endless" yarn and the staple fiber yarn.
The staple fiber yarn has many fiber ends in the hank, which enhance the volume and by this and by
this the absorption potential.

Roof paneling:
In order to improve the absorption potential of the roof paneling, a two-layer PET construction would
provide a solution: on the visible side a PET nonwoven is laminated to an air-permeable PET carpet
bonded by thermal activated Bico/PET fibers.

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Titel: Acoustic Textiles – sound absorption Autor: R. Senthil Kumar, S. Sundaresan, Dept. of
Textile Technology, Kumaraguru College
of Technology, Coimbatore/India

Seats:
The car seats have large surface areas, and they even absorb airborne noise in low frequency ranges,
if covered with an air permeable textile because of their thick molded upholstery. The molded
upholstery of car seats is usually constructed using polyurethane foam. Molded upholstery based on
PET fibres, are still in the stage of development.

Trunk:
Besides the interior, the paneling in the trunk is to assume an acoustic function. Generally, a trunk
should be constructed in a manner which prevents the airborne noise (activated by the body) as far as
possible from entering the trunk and thus the interior. The trunk has to be insulated against incident
noise. An additional sound barrier is thus necessary between the trunk and the interior. In the acoustic
design of the trunk paneling, there is a particular interest with regard to pressure compensation, whe-
reby the air is guided between the trunk paneling and the outer wall. Extremely absorbent textile mol-
ded parts as well as textile flat parts are installed to keep away any noise e.g. of the exhaust system,
from the rear passenger compartment.

Textile wheel housing:

In order to avoid corrosion of the front mudguards, as well as to reduce the vehicle weight, primarily
only the front wheel guards were fitted with wheel housing made by injection molding of PP. Later, the
rear wheel guards also got the same wheel housing. After the acoustic demands with regard to the
wheel housing were met by the use of more material, today there is a trend towards lightweight textile
wheel housing. On a dry road, there is only a very low acoustic difference between injection molded
wheel housing and textile wheel housing. On a wet road, differences in noise-pressure level appear: at
500 Hz as well as between 5 and 10 kHz, the differences range at about 2-3 dB for the benefit of the
textile wheel housing.

Conclusion:
There is already a high penetration of nonwovens in construction sector and the present paper only re-
fers to the specific case of sound insulation. For each application there is still room for value added
products and that will only further consolidated nonwovens position. When they have to choose bet-
ween varieties of products, manufacturers consider following criteria: economics, durability, aesthetics,
processibility, moldability, added benefits (e.g.: acoustics, flame retardant, recyclable, etc.), which are
main driving forces of nonwoven in construction industry worldwide.

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Titel: Acoustic Textiles – sound absorption Autor: R. Senthil Kumar, S. Sundaresan, Dept. of
Textile Technology, Kumaraguru College
of Technology, Coimbatore/India

Reference:
1) Kannan Allanpalayam jayaraman Phd thesis. Acoustical Absorptive properties of nonwovens,
2005, north Carolina university.
2) Michael Coates and Marek kierzkowski, “Acoustic textiles-lighter ,thinner, and more sound absor-
bent”, Technical textile international, September 2002.
3) Simona Vasile,Lieva van Langenhove, Automotive Industry A high potential Market for nonwoven
sound Insulation, Journal of textile And apparel, Technology And management. Vol 3, Issue 4,
Winter 2004.
4) Ching-Wen lou,Jia-Horng Lin,Kaun-Hua Su, Recycling polyester and polypropylene nonwoven sel-
vages to produce functional sound absorption composite, Textile Research journal 75(5), 390-394
(2005).
5) A. Helmer, Application of nonwoven and fibre structures in the car and their acoustic performance,
Technical textile ,Vol 45 March 2002.
6) Youneung Lee, Changwhan Joo, “ Sound absorption properties of recycled polyester fibrous as-
sembly absorbers”, AUTEX Research Journal, Vol. 3, No2, June 2003
7) J.Van Buskirk,P.middleton, Rieter automotive:Light weight noice protection, Technical Textiles,
Vol 42, Aug .1999.
8) www.inccorp.com
9) http://www.acousticalsolutions.com/products/foams/index.asp
10) http://www.allnoisecontrol.com-img-products
11) A term paper on Acoustic textiles by Viswas Somkuwar, IIT Delhi.

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Titel: Acoustic Textiles – sound absorption Autor: R. Senthil Kumar, S. Sundaresan, Dept. of
Textile Technology, Kumaraguru College
of Technology, Coimbatore/India

Das Meer ist ein wahrer Jungbrunnen mit heilender Wirkung für viele Erkrankungen. Es beherbergt
eine ungeahnte Vielfalt biologisch und chemisch interessanter Organismen. Schon vor über 2000 Jah-
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Der Faserhersteller smartfiber macht sich die
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