A REVIEW OF BUILDING ACOUSTIC MATERIALS

M. Ramesh Kumar1, P.S Alagisamy1*, M. Sakthivel 2,

Arun Mahalingam 3 and B V A Rao 4
1

Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore, 2 Info Institute of Engineering, Coimbatore,

3

NIT Surathkal, Mangalore

*e-mail: pasupathy.s.a@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
These days higher level of importance is given to have good acoustical environment to meet
the stringent legislation and also to satisfy the customers of entertainment industries. Nevertheless,
acoustics plays a vital role in the design of worship places. Noise and reverberation are the essential parameters to be controlled to achieve acoustically pleasing built environment. It is believed
that acoustically treated industries not only improves the productivity of the workers but also provides good occupational safety. Similarly, the control of reverberation time and external noises produced by other sources will determine the listening experience in the performance places such as
cinemas, auditorium and etc. Sound absorption and sound insulation are the properties dictate the
acoustics of the built spaces and they are measured in the form of absorption coefficient () and
Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) respectively. These two properties are mainly dependent on
porosity, tortuosity, volume density and fibre properties of the materials. The size, type and number
of pores will have significant effect on absorption properties of the acoustic tiles. Moreover, the
fibre diameter will have considerable impact on absorption characteristics of acoustic panels. For
instance, finer fibres will have better absorption properties. The thickness of the acoustic panels will
have direct relationship on the frequency of absorption and the density will have a similar effect on
sound insulation. Despite the fact that the compression of acoustic materials was not much
discussed, it has certain effect on absorption properties of the acoustic tiles. In addition to this, the
placement of acoustic panels in combination with different air gaps and backing material will also
have huge impact on the frequency of sound absorption. The varying thickness of glass and Rockwool fibres tiles are commonly used as backing materials. There are many materials being used to
attain the desired acoustic effect inside the built environment. However, many researches are being
conducted to produce sustainable, economical and environmental friendly acoustic panels. This
paper is a review of recent developments in acoustic panels with a focus on production of sustainable and eco friendly sound absorption and insulation materials and their properties.

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1.

INTRODUCTION

Noise is one of the major air pollutants, which will have severe impact on living organisms.
The world health organization (WHO) states that the continuous exposure to noise will have adverse effect on human beings in the form of hearing loss, sleep disturbance and even it affects the
immune systems [1-3]. The rapid industrialization and ever increasing automobiles on the road are
the major factors for environmental noise pollution [4-5]. Whereas in the built environment, the
sources of noise is broadly classified in to two: 1) external noise intruding the rooms such as noise
emanating from HVACs 2) internal or self generated noise, for an instance noise generated from
the call centers (communication area noise) [6-7]. Both internal and externally generated noise can
be controlled using passive and active methods [8-9]. In passive techniques, the desired acoustical
effect is achieved by using porous materials as wall and ceiling claddings for sound absorption and
insulation [6-7, 10]. The active method of noise control is an expensive method which requires external sound source and good control mechanisms to cancel the noise [9]. In majority of the building applications, the desired acoustical environment is achieved by employing passive method so as
to reduce the cost. Nevertheless, passive medium of noise control is effective mainly for mid and
higher frequency and active methods are powerful in controlling low frequency noise [11], which is
shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 working range for active and passive medium [12]

Rockwool, glass wool and mineral wool are widely used to provide desired sound and thermal
insulation inside the building [12-14]. However, these materials cause various health related issues
such as lung diseases and skin irritations and usage of these materials are banned in many countries
[15-16]. Hence, researchers and the industrialists are concentrating to develop a cost effective solution. These can be achieved by employing naturally available porous materials such as porous
rocks, sands, soil on the earth surfaces, water saturated granular but they are not abundant [17- 19]
Therefore, researchers are developing porous materials by using different types of natural fibres
obtained from plants and trees. This paper reviews the recent advancement in the sustainable acoustic materials and their acoustical properties.
2. NOISE IN BUILT ENVIRONMENT
The acoustics in the built environment is normally evaluated on Noise curves (NC) and reverberation time (RT) [20-22]. By employing sound absorption materials as wall and ceiling claddings, the
desired NC and RTs are achieved. The sound absorption materials are rated with sound absorption
coefficient (), Noise reduction coefficient (NRC) and sound transmission coefficient (STC) [24 26]. The absorption and transmission loss are dependent on fibre size, volume of fibre, porosity,
tortuosity, air flow resistance, thickness, density, compression and placement/position of materials
[27-30]. Out of these, fibre size, porosity, thickness and density are the major factors for sound
absorption [26,29]. Sound absorption is inversely proportional to the diameter/width of the fibre [8].
However, there is no known study reporting the effect of varying fibre width on absorption. Volume
porosity is another important parameter, which is directly proportional to absorption. The Thickness
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and density are the other major factors deciding the frequency of absorption [27-28]. The low frequency sound is effectively absorbed by increasing the thickness of the material [33]. Nevertheless,
the lower dense materials tend to absorb low frequencies and high density materials work better for
mid and high frequencies [6-7, 9]. Although other parameters were studied for absorption, only one
paper by Castagnede, et.al (2000), reported the effect of compression on absorption.[34] The
sound absorption are commonly measured in three methods 1) reverberation room method , 2) impedance tube method and 3) Tone burst method . Although reverberant field method is very effective for rating, it is not commonly used, as it is expensive and requires large space [35]. Hence, impedance tube method is widely used to acoustically rate the materials.
3. SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS
Majority of sound absorption materials are synthetic fibres and usage of these materials will severely affect the health and the environment [2]. Hence, it is necessary to develop sustainable and green
materials which will have less effect on Occupational Health. According to United Nations report,
the sustainability is defined as Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs [36]. Therefore, sustainable materials should be produced by spending little energy and made from natural or recycled materials and will leave low carbon foot print [11,37]. The impact of building materials on environment
is assessed generally by Life Cycle Assessment Procedures (LCA), which involve all the process,
starting from material extraction to disposal and reuse [38]. Ecoinvent , BRE Eco-profiles and Ecoindicator are some of the standards available to measure the impact on environment [39]. Figure 2
shows the energy consumption pattern of some key sound absorption materials in their life cycle
(LCA).

Figure 2 Energy consumption trend of sound absorption materials in their life cycle [17]
The wood fiber extracted from Arenga pinnata was initially proposed to be an alternate to Pinus
radiate, which is widely used. However, the panels made of Arenga pinnata are effective only for
the frequencies between 2000- 4000 Hz [40]. The absorption coefficient of these panels shows very
poor sound absorption in low frequency range (less than 500 Hz) than the panels made of palm tree
fiber and coir fiber. Panels made by mixing rice straw particles with wood particles were proposed
by (X.li, 2010). It showed superior sound absorption performances in higher frequencies than plywood, particle and fiber boards [41]. There have been different fibers extracted from durian, bamboo, eucalypt species and Indonesian Hardwood were also considered for acoustic panels and they
also show promising solution for mid to high frequencies [41-46]
Coir fiber extracted from coconuts are another most preferred acoustic material for its lower weight
and cost [48]. To achieve better sound transmission loss and maximum absorption, perforated panels should be incorporated between two coir boards [48-49]. However, their availability is restricted to tropical countries and the major problem is drying of coconut fruit to extract fibre from it.
Fiber extracted from largely available rain-fed crop Jute is used along with natural rubber to proACOUSTIS2013NEWDELHI,NewDelhi, India, November 10-15, 2013

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duce acoustic panels mainly for domestic and automotive applications. The NRC and STC values of
jute fiber reinforced with natural rubber are comparable with glass fiber reinforced with polymer
resin. Although this can be a good alternate and also eco friendly, their applications to architectural
acoustics is restricted, as they perform better only in high frequencies [51]. Kenaf fibre (Hibiscus
cannabinus), belongs to jute family was also studied for acoustical properties. Although they have
similar properties of jute, their absorption performances reduced in high and medium frequencies
when the temperature and humidity are dropped below 15C and 30% respectively. Hence, they are
mainly used to produce papers rather than acoustic boards [21]. Kapok fiber is one of the promising
natural materials which shows superior acoustical performances for wide range of frequencies [52].
Since these fibers have natural hollow shape, it provides better STC than the glass fiber based panels. However, they are highly flammable and the improvement in fire rating is under research [52].
There has been lot of research conducted to produce sustainable acoustic materials from wastes
such as industrial tea leaf fiber, rubber granules and used papers[52-56]. Most of these materials are
having high density and are commonly used in automobile applications [55, 57].Table 1 shows the
acoustical properties of sustainable materials. The recent advancement in coating technology, improves the sound absorption properties of common porous materials. panels coated with Nano
fibrous Membranes will improve the absorption characteristics of low and middle frequencies [5860]
Table 1 Noise Reduction Values (NRC) of some sustainable and conventional materials [40,4445, 51-52, 57- 58, 62]
MATERIAL

THICKNES
In mm

DENSITY
Kg/M3

SOUND ABSORPTION COEFFICIENT ()

200 HZ 400 HZ

Eucalyptus urophylla
Jute with 1% natural
rubber (NR)
Industrial tea leaf with
cotton cloth
Low density particle
board
Medium density particle
board
Coir fibre without
Perforated Panel
Coir fibre with
Perforated Panel
Kapok fibre
Sisal fibre
Sisal panel
Acacia mangium
Maesopsis eminii
Pinus radiate
Arenga pinnata
Kenaf fibre
Hemp fibre
Rubber granules

10

800 HZ

1600 HZ

NRC

2000 HZ

0.030

0.040

0.020

0.180

0.040

0.037

140

0.35

0.6

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.86

27.5

0.19

0.25

0.33

0.25

10

50

0.20

0.35

0.65

0.7

0.475

10

80

0.7

0.3

0.32

0.38

0.4

0.42

0.25

0.3

0.5

0.76

0.84

0.74

0.2

0.3

0.63

0.8

0.7

0.5

40
50
50
25
25
13
40
50
40
5

20
40
140
58
60
255
50
40
1400

0.2
0.23
0.20
0.1
0.48
0.59
0.20

0.55
0.40
0.46
0.2
0.74
0.60
0.77

0.77
0.9
0.94
0.4
0.8
0.60
0.80

0.90
0.84
0.86
-

0.946
0.90
0.85
0.368
0.406
0.8
0.75
0.96
0.52
0.56

0.55
0.6
0.7
0.368
0.406
0.4
0.5
0.748
0.568
0.520

0.6
0.3
0.92
0.56
0.55

4. CONCLUSION
Sustainable materials made from either natural or recycled materials are getting popular to reduce the carbon footprint. Most of the natural fibres discussed here are mainly be used for mid and
high frequency applications. It is necessary to develop sustainable acoustical materials to control
low frequency and impact noise. Since sustainable material development for acoustics is in its infancy, their impact on environmental needs to be evaluated using Life Cycle Assessment techniques. This paper provided a comprehensive survey of recent developments in sustainable material
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development for architectural acoustics and it amended the recent bibliography related with sustainability and acoustics.
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