This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier.

The attached
copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research
and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution
and sharing with colleagues.
Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or
licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party
websites are prohibited.
In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the
article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or
institutional repository. Authors requiring further information
regarding Elseviers archiving and manuscript policies are
encouraged to visit:
http://www.elsevier.com/copyright

Author's personal copy

Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 241249

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Acoustics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apacoust

Utilization of coir ber in multilayer acoustic absorption panel

Mohammad Hosseini Fouladi *, Mohd Jailani Mohd Nor, Md. Ayub, Zulkarnain Ali Leman
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 19 August 2009
Received in revised form 9 September 2009
Accepted 25 September 2009
Available online 5 November 2009

Coconut is one of the most important harvests in Malaysia. Industrial prepared coir ber is obtained from
coconut husk combined with latex and other additives to enhance its structural characteristics. Unfortunately, such inevitable process diminishes the acoustical features of material. Previous studies on industrial coir ber and berair gap layers showed that low frequency absorptions needed improvements.
Therefore perforated plate (PP) was added to the multilayer structure to further enhance the sound
absorption in this area. Analyses were accomplished through three PP modeling approaches (Allard, Beranek and Ver, Atalla and Sgard) and Allard Transfer Function (TF) method. Experiments were conducted in
impedance tube to support the analytical results. Outcomes showed that Allard TF method was generally
closer to measurement values and implemented for additional analyses. Two possible conditions of putting PP in front of ber layer or between berair gap layers were investigated. Both arrangements were
suitable to enhance the sound absorption. Although, when PP was backed by coir ber and air gap, porosity of the plate had great inuence in adjusting the amount of low frequency absorption. Result derived
that PP might improve the low frequency absorption of coir ber but at the same time the medium frequency absorption was reduced. This effect was noticed previously in coir berair gap structures while
the air gap thickness increased. The advantage of using PP was that it assisted in greatly reducing the air
gap thickness under the same acoustical performance. Hence it is an efcient tool to reduce the thickness
of acoustic isolators in practical purposes.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Coir ber
Acoustic absorption
Perforated plate
Multilayer material

1. Introduction
Noise control is a vital process in todays structural design. Engineers seek for new materials and arrangements to enhance the
sound attenuation techniques. Different combination of porous
materials, air gap and perforated plates (PPs) are implemented
for this purpose. Natural substances are in the center of interest
as they are recyclable and easily available sources. Coir ber from
coconut husk is an agricultural waste in Malaysia. Acoustic absorption characteristics of coir ber were studied in acoustic laboratories of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia [13]. Diffuse eld sound
absorption was measured in reverberation room and simulation
obtained by using software WinFlag . Further, analytical analysis
on normal incidence absorption of coir ber and its combination
with air gap were conducted and validated in impedance tube.
Fig. 1 shows an example regarding normal incidence acoustic
absorption of 50 mm coir ber with and without air gap. For the
50 mm ber, medium and high frequency absorptions were higher
than 75%, but low frequency absorption less than 1 kHz was still
low and additional improvements were needed. Furthermore, it
was observed that increase in the air gap thickness moved the
peaks toward lower frequencies and improved the low frequencies
TM

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 389216015; fax: +60 389216016.

E-mail address: mfoolady@gmail.com (M. Hosseini Fouladi).
0003-682X/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apacoust.2009.09.003

absorption as expected. Unfortunately, that increase coincided

with reduction in medium frequency absorption. The resonance
peak was moved to 900 Hz which conrmed the low frequency
enhancement but at the same time medium range absorption
was reduced between 1200 and 2400 Hz. Therefore it was concluded that addition of other acoustic material like PP may be useful to further enhance the low frequency sound absorption without
any need to produce a large air gap.
Theoretical investigations of perforated facings were rst
accomplished by Bolt [4] in 1947. He estimated the acoustic
impedance of perforated facing based on impedance of one hole
and fraction of perforated open area. Ingard [57], Allard [8] and
Beranek and Ver [9] implemented the same idea to calculate the
acoustic impedance of perforated panel backed with air cavity or
porous material in normal and diffuse elds. Takahashi [10] added
that effect of interaction between one hole and another part of the
facing also should be considered. He mentioned that averaging
based on one hole impedance can not include wave diffraction
phenomena caused by discontinuities in surface impedance. Therefore the problem was treated as a wave scattering from a boundary
surface and acoustic absorption coefcient was calculated from the
scattered waves. Toyoda and Takahashi [11] discussed the effects
of impedance on the acoustic power in one-dimensional system.
Results obtained that acoustic radiation from vibrating surfaces
can be reduced by imposing appropriate impedance. For this

Author's personal copy

242

M. Hosseini Fouladi et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 241249

Absorption Coefficient

0.8

0.6

50 mm coir fiber

0.4

50 mm coir fiber backed with

35 mm air gap
0.2

0
0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

Freq. (Hz)
Fig. 1. Acoustic absorption coefcient of 50 mm coir ber with and without air gap.

purpose, a perforated board with a back cavity was linked via stiffeners at the radiation side of a vibrating surface to have the same
vibration. Reduction was achievable at arbitrary frequencies by
tuning parameters of the perforated board and the back cavity.
Thereafter for three-dimensional problem [12], they proposed a
system of subdivided air cavities in the form of a honeycomb layer
instead of using undivided backing cavities. Chen [13] calculated
the transmission loss of perforated facings using two-dimensional
plane wave theory. He demonstrated that higher thickness of
screen and smaller radius of perforations caused higher transmission loss. Besides it was concluded that transmission loss of PP is
almost independent of the chosen material. Kang and Fuchs [14]
introduced theories to analyze combinations of glass ber textile
or a micro-perforated membrane backed by air gap. They regarded
an open weave textile or a micro-perforated membrane as a parallel connection of the membrane and apertures backed by air cavity.
They showed that with appropriate adjustments, the absorption
performance of these structures can be very high.
Chen et al. [15] discussed the acoustic absorption of porous
materials having different surface shapes combined with PPs. The
four commercially available surface shapes, namely; triangle,
semicircle, convex rectangle and plate shape were investigated. It
was derived that for frequencies higher than 1200 Hz, brous
material with triangle, semicircle or convex rectangle shape has
better acoustic absorption than plate shape. Also having more
material in the porous structure enhanced the acoustic absorption
at low frequency band. Further [16], they introduced Acoustic
Transmission Analysis (ATA) method as an easy and reliable technique to estimate the surface impedance of multilayer absorbers.
Another interesting point of this technique was that the effect of
back surface impedance was taken into account. For the single panel, the lower porosity caused a lower acoustic resonance frequency and higher acoustic absorption effect. However, higher
porosity resulted in better absorption in higher frequencies.
Assembly of three PPs had a more broadband effect and better than
using a single plate.
Atalla et al. [17] numerically modeled non-homogeneous thin
macro-perforated porous materials (e.g. mineral wool with periodic cylindrical holes called macro-pores). It consisted of porous

media made up from thin porous patches with different acoustic

properties. Possible interaction between different patches was
taken into consideration. Macro-porosity could be adjusted to
achieve a maximum absorption in a given frequency range. Smaller
and higher macro-porosities resulted in higher absorption in low
and high frequencies, respectively. The hole size of the macro-perforation could be used to control the bandwidth of the absorption
peak. It was derived that properly designed macro-perforated porous materials improve the absorption at low frequencies without
any loss at higher frequencies. They further showed that generally
for double porosity materials, hole prole strongly controlled the
performance of the structure [18]. A progressive decrease of the
meso-porosity as the wave penetrates inside the material provides
a signicant increase of the absorption coefcient in a very wide
frequency band. Moreover [19], they modeled a perforated screen
as an equivalent uid following the JohnsonAllard approach with
an equivalent tortuosity. The equivalent tortuosity depended on
the media interfacing with the perforated screen.
Sakagami et al. [20] recommended that thick micro-perforated
panels have more strength; hence they are more practical for
acoustic absorption of room interiors. They were enhanced by
making tapered perforations to overcome the usual low absorption
of thick-uniform perforated panels. Recently [21], they presented
that sound absorption by micro-perforated panel and panel-membrane are the same kind of phenomena which can be transferred
into each other by changing parameters. Kang and Brocklesby
[22] implemented transparent micro-perforated panels for sound
insulation of windows. Larger window cross section; up to
300 mm, achieved better absorption results. Analyses were conducted by Panteghini et al. [23] to improve the low frequency response of medium size rooms. Plywoodberglass perforated
panels were used and found to be adequate for this purpose. Lee
and Kwon [24] utilized transfer matrix representation to analyze
acoustic absorption of multilayer perforated panel structures. The
absorption coefcient was obtained from the overall transfer matrix calculated by multiplying unit transfer matrices for perforated
panels or airspaces. Congyun and Qibai [25] employed electroacoustic analogy to analyze absorption coefcient of multilayer
absorbers consist of perforated screen backed by air gap or porous

Author's personal copy

243

M. Hosseini Fouladi et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 241249

material. Besides, an iteration technique was introduced to calculate the acoustic absorption of material made by all the aforementioned layers.
Lee et al. [26] studied the effects of exibility of micro-perforated screen on the sound absorption. Their formulation was based
on the modal analysis of plate coupled with the acoustic wave
equation. Outcomes showed that panel vibration can dissipate energy and widen the absorption bandwidth. Structural damping increased the absorption between the structural resonance and peak
frequencies of the micro-perforation effects and decreased the
absorption at structural resonances. Pfretzschner et al. [27] developed micro-perforated insertion unit to improve the structural
weakness of classical micro-perforated panels. It was constructed
by combining two perforated panels with suitable constitutive
parameters. The exterior one facing the sound eld was very thick
with large perforations and the other one was too thin with high
perforation ratio. Zou et al. [28] introduced impedance transfer
method to estimate absorption coefcient of double-layer microperforated membrane structure. Their experiments proved that
this technique can achieve more accurate values rather than using
equivalent circuit approach. Aygun and Attenborough [29] looked
into acoustic insertion loss (reduction in sound pressure level) of
poro-elastic plate mounted across a ow duct, with and without
ow. The insertion loss of porous plate decreased for higher perforation ratio for both conditions. Without air ow, the position of
plate did not affect the insertion loss signicantly. In presence of
air ow, the insertion loss of plate with the higher perforation ratio
increased by mounting the plate closer to the microphone as the
response channel.
In this research, normal incidence acoustic absorption of multilayer structure constructed by coir ber, air gap and PP was studied
analytically. Various techniques were investigated and examined
to choose the most suitable one for prediction of acoustical behavior of structure. Measurements were also conducted in impedance
tube to support the analyses.
2. Methodology
First of all, three PP modeling approaches namely, Allard [8],
Beranek and Ver [9] and Atalla and Sgard [19] were implemented
for analytical analyses of PP backed with air gap or coir ber. Differences of these analytical procedures were generally due to derivation of viscous and inertial effects related to perforations.
Thereafter, Allard Transfer Function (TF) technique was introduced
for acoustical analysis of multilayer structures. Combinations of
different layers were examined to found the arrangement having
higher absorption throughout frequency spectrum.

length ee related to the inertial effect of vibrating air in the aperture

is estimated as [8]:

ee 0:48 S1  1:14 us ;

us < 0:4

with S = pR is cross section area of the aperture and us p open

area ratio or porosity of the facing. The surface acoustic impedance
Z in front of the panel backed with air gap is obtained by Eq. (3):



2d
Rs
jxq0
2ee d
ZB
4
R
us
us

2.1.1. Allard model

This model considers the perforated screen as combination of
elementary cells made by cylinders having square shaped cross
section. Air ow is bended near the screen to pass through an aperture. Therefore velocity and then kinetic energy are increased, performing the same as tortuosity effect in porous materials. The wave
number in a cylinder km,n is calculated by Eq. (1) [8]:

km;n


1=2
4p2 m2 4p2 n2
2
k 

;
D2
D2

m; n 0; 1; 2; . . .

where k is the wave number in free air, D length of a cell (distance

between apertures), m and n are orthogonal basis for pressure eld
in the cylinder. By assuming uniform normal velocity of air in an
aperture with radius R and averaging the pressure, the correction

The rst term in right side of Eq. (3) is accounting for surface
resistance of aperture due to viscous dissipation. Surface resistance
Rs is estimated by [30]:

Rs

1 p
2gq0 x
2

here d is thickness of plate, x angular frequency, q0 and g density

and dynamic viscosity of air, respectively. The second term in Eq.
(3) is regarding inertial effect due to moving a cylinder of air. The
last part; ZB is the normal surface impedance of the backing layer
(air here). The resistance part is generally negligible compared to
ZB value. If the backing layer is lled with porous material, the air
ow is distorted and the surface acoustic impedance of the panel
is approximated as [8]:

pus

m;n0;0

ee d

v m;n

jxq0

us

J 21 2p DR m2 n2 1=2  jZ c k cotkm;n L

km;n up
m2 n2

ZB

up

where v0,1 = v1,0 = 0.5, vm,n = 1 if n and m 0, moreover up, L, Zc and

ZB are porosity and thickness, characteristic impedance and surface
impedance of backing material (coir ber here), respectively. The
viscous forces inside and around the aperture are neglected.
2.1.2. Beranek and Ver model
They studied acoustic impedance of resonators for different orice shapes, mounting conditions and ow characteristics [9]. For a
single resonator with smooth circular shape orices they obtained
Eq. (6):

"
Z


p
d
2Rx2

8v x 1
jx
2R
8c0

!#
r

8v
d
q0
d ee
1
2R
x
us

ZB
6
here

p

q

ee 0:48 S 1  1:47 us 0:47 u3s

2.1. PP modeling approaches

2
R2
D2

and v is kinematic viscosity of air and c0 sound velocity. Eq. (6) is

only valid for no ow or very low ow speed.
2.1.3. Atalla and Sgard model
Atalla and Sgard [19] followed the JohnsonAllard approach and
modeled a PP as an equivalent uid having corresponding tortuosity. Such tortuosity was depending on the media in contact with
the screen. For PP backed with cavity, the model was almost the
same as Allard model mentioned in Section 2.1 with a little change
in the resistance part:



2d
ee Rs
jxq0
2ee d
ZB
4
R
R us
us

If the backing layer is porous material, a rigid frame model is

recommended. Two correction terms are introduced to calculate
the surface impedance ZB between the screen and backing layer.

Author's personal copy

244

M. Hosseini Fouladi et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 241249

The rst one is based on the static tortuosity of the porous layer
which is only accurate for low ow resistivity materials. The second one that is implemented in the current paper is based on the
~ p . It is applicable for both
dynamic tortuosity of the porous layer a
low and high ow resistivity porous materials:

 jxq0

ee 1 Rea~ p d

us

ZB

up

and

q1
2g
q0 x

~ p a1 @1
Rea

10

where a1 is static tortuosity and K is the viscous characteristic

length regarding the porous material. Only the real part of dynamic
tortuosity should be used in Eq. (9) otherwise the resulting absorption coefcient will be overestimated.
In evaluation of multilayer structures using 2.1.12.1.3 approaches, not only methods of analyzing PP backed with porous
layer and air gap but techniques of adding various consecutive layers together are important. One may use the well-known electrical
circuit routine or the more reliable Acoustic Transmission Analysis
(ATA) process. Using ATA for an isotropic and homogeneous multilayer material, the surface acoustic impedance Uj of jth layer with
thickness tj is calculated using Eq. (11) as below [31]:

Z back coshcj t j Z j sinhcj tj

Cj Z j
Z back sinhcj tj Z j coshcj tj

11

where Zj and cj are characteristic impedance and complex wave

number of jth layer and Zback is back surface acoustic impedance.

Assume that a and b are two adjacent layers with porosities ua

and ub, respectively. The transition between these layers is estimated by transfer matrix [T] dened as below:

T T a T ab T b 

12

where [Ta] and [Tb] are transfer matrices of layers a and b, respectively, and [Tab] is the interface matrix relating stresses and velocities for the two porous layers. The transfer matrix [Tab] is dened in
the following way [8]. Suppose that acoustic eld rst impose layer
a, therefore,

60
1
0
6
6
6 0 1  ub =ua ub =ua
T a;b  6
60
0
0
6
6
40
0
0
0

rcoir 490

1:61
qbulk

dfiber

7
7
7
7
0 0
0
7
1 0 1  ua =ub 7
7
7
5
0 1
0
0

13

ua =ub

Afterward, [T] is again related to transfer matrix of the next

layer by an interface matrix and so on. Then transfer matrix of
the whole material can be estimated layer by layer using this technique. This resultant matrix is used to calculate the acoustic
absorption of material as fully described by Allard [8].
2.3. Results and observations
Measurements were conducted in impedance tube according to
ISO 10534-2 [32]. Basis of the technique was to estimate the normal incidence sound absorption coefcient according to transfer
function between two microphones inside the tube. Components
of the measurement system mainly included two impedance tubes
with diameters 28 mm and 100 mm each contains two micro-

14

Coir ber had a low ow resistivity of 1380 and 1700 Ns/m4 for
50 and 20 mm layer thickness, respectively. The real diameter of bers mixed with binder in the porous material was estimated as:

dmix dfiber dfiber up

2.2. Allard TF approach

phones type GRAS-40BP, plane wave source, two channel data

acquisition system and software package 01 dB. Small tube was
used to measure the absorption coefcient in high frequency range
16006300 Hz and large tube was implemented for low frequencies 31.51600 Hz. Calibrator type GRAS-42AB was utilized for
microphone sensitivity calibration at 114 dB and 1 kHz. Measurements were acquired with 3 Hz frequency resolution and sample
records of nite duration about 10 s. PPs were made of Aluminum
alloy mounted by normal scotch tape in vertical position inside the
impedance tube.
Normally PPs enhance low frequency absorption coefcient. But
at the same time, they usually have adverse effect in medium and
high frequencies. Utilization of different combinations was to
achieve the highest absorption throughout the spectrum. In the
beginning, the simple condition of PP backed with coir ber was
analyzed. The well-known Allard model for single layer porous
material based on wave equation was utilized to evaluate surface
acoustic impedance of single layer coir ber (as the back surface
impedance). Average density and ber diameter dber of the industrial prepared coir ber (mixed with binder) that was utilized in
this research measured as 825 kg/m3 and 248 lm, respectively.
Bulk density qbulk was also obtained from the mass and volume
of each sample separately. Flow resistivities of different samples
were estimated using empirical Eq. (14) [33]:

15

The unit volume of material was wholly occupied by ber-binder

mixture and the total length per unit volume lmix developed as:

lmix

pr2mix

16

where r mix dmix

and the perimeter of mixture was multiplied by
2
porosity to calculate the viscous characteristic length as below:

Kmix

1
2pr mix lmix up

17

Fig. 2 shows the acoustic absorption of PP (R = 0.8, D = 4 and

d = 1 mm) backed with 50 mm coir ber. In PP methods, surface
acoustic impedance of coir ber was calculated by conventional Allard wave equations customized by Eqs. (14)(17) and added to the
PP formulation as the back surface impedance. For Allard TF method, PP was modeled as a porous material with cylindrical pores.
Therefore viscous and thermal boundary layers were equal to
hydraulic radius of perforations; K = K0 = R [8]. Flow resistivity
was calculated by Eq. (18):

rPP

8g
us R2

18

Then TFs of ber and PP layers were obtained and multiplied to

estimate the resultant TF of material and corresponding surface
impedance and absorption coefcient. Fig. 2 describes that outcomes of PP methods were almost in the same range despite the
under estimation achieved by Beranek method for the rst peak.
Allard TF answers conrmed these results; however they were closer to experimental data in the medium frequencies. Differences
between experimental and analytical values were due to imperfections in the PPs fabrication that caused uneven tapering and nonuniform perforation radius.

Author's personal copy

245

M. Hosseini Fouladi et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 241249

Absorption Coefficient

0.8

0.6

Experimental
Allard PP method

0.4

Attala PP method
Beranek PP method

0.2

Allard transfer function method

0
0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

Freq. (Hz)
Fig. 2. Acoustic absorption of perforated plate (R = 0.8 mm, D = 4 mm) backed with 50 mm coir ber.

Two possible combinations for single layer PP, coir ber and air
gap are illustrated in Fig. 3. In Fig. 3a, normal incidence acoustic
eld rst impinged against the PP and then distorted into coir ber
layer backed by air gap. Fig. 3b shows the condition that normal
incidence acoustic eld owed through the coir ber layer then
reached a Helmholtz resonator (PP backed with air gap). These

(a)

Perforated
Plate
L1

Coir
fiber

(b)
L1

Coir
fiber

L2

Air
gap

Rigid
wall

Perforated
Plate L2

Air
gap

arrangements of coir ber, PP and air gap were evaluated by Allard

PP, Allard TF and ATA methods as shown in Figs. 47. Plots that are
presented in Fig. 4 are corresponding to Fig. 3a combination. A PP
with R = 0.8, D = 4 and d = 1 mm (us = 13%) was backed by 50 mm
industrial coir ber and 35 mm air gap. Dashed line expresses Allard TF results. First, Allard wave equations were used to model
air gap as a porous material with 100% porosity, tortuosity a1 = 1
and very low ow resistivity and shear modulus. The viscous characteristic length of air was estimated using Eq. (19) [8]:

Rigid
wall

Fig. 3. Two possible arrangements for single perforated plate, coir ber and air gap
assembly: (a) leaving the plate in front of coir berair gap layers; (b) a single layer
coir ber backed by perforated plate that is separated from the wall by an air gap.


1=2
8a1 g

ur

19

Thereafter surface impedance and TF of air layer was estimated

and multiplied by the rest of TFs, as before, to achieve the resultant
surface impedance of material. For the dotted line, the surface
impedance of berair gap was estimated by Allard TF method.
Then this value was added to the Allard PP method to represent
the back surface impedance. Both of the analytical techniques
show reasonable values, however, again Allard TF method was generally closer to experimental records. Combination of Fig. 3b is
implemented in Fig. 5 to analyze the same PP. Dashed line is again
related to Allard TF method which was acquired as explained
before. For the dotted line, surface impedance of PP backed with
air gap was rstly calculated by Allard PP method. Then this layer
was added to 50 mm coir ber by ATA technique using Eq. (11).
This gure shows that Allard TF approach commonly led to
accurate values. The other add-up approach did not predict the
true position of rst peak and failed to detect second and third
resonances.
Based on the abovementioned ndings, Allard TF technique was
accepted as the accurate and reliable procedure and used for further analyses. Fig. 3 was more analytically investigated to realize
the effects of different combinations and porosities of PP on sound
absorption of material and outcomes are shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
Generally in acoustics, having more porous material in front of
PP will enhance absorption at higher frequencies because the

Author's personal copy

246

M. Hosseini Fouladi et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 241249

Absorption Coefficient

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

Freq. (Hz)
Fig. 4. Estimation of acoustic absorption of perforated plate (R = 0.8 mm, D = 4 mm) backed with 50 mm coir ber and 35 mm air gap; arrangement (a) in Fig. 3, solid line:
experimental, dashed line (- -): analytical-Allard based on transfer functions method, dotted line (..): analytical-Allard Transfer Function method to calculate berair gap
surface impedance and adding to plate surface impedance using Allard perforated plate approach.

Absorption Coefficient

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

Freq. (Hz)
Fig. 5. Estimation of acoustic absorption of 50 mm coir ber backed with perforated plate (R = 0.8 mm, D = 4 mm) and 35 mm air gap; arrangement (b) in Fig. 3, solid line:
experimental, dashed line (- -): analytical-Allard based on transfer functions method, dotted line (..): analytical-Allard perforated plate approach backed with air gap and
multilayer calculation by ATA.

material absorbs high frequency incidences. On the contrary, putting porous material at the back layer of PP will promote low frequency absorption because the material induces extra resistance

at lower frequencies. Fig. 6 is related to arrangement (a) in Fig. 3

and two extreme conditions of 20% and 1% porosity were observed.
For the high porosity PP, acoustic absorption plot is close to dashed

Author's personal copy

247

M. Hosseini Fouladi et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 241249

Absorption Coefficient

0.8

0.6

20% perforation
0.4

1% perforation

0.2

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

Freq. (Hz)
Fig. 6. Absorption coefcient of perforated plate with different perforation backed with 50 mm coir ber and 35 mm air gap; arrangement (a) in Fig. 3.

Absorption Coefficient

0.8

0.6

0.4

20% perforation
1% perforation

0.2

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

Freq. (Hz)
Fig. 7. Absorption coefcient of 50 mm coir ber backed perforated plate with different perforation and 35 mm air gap; arrangement (b) in Fig. 3.

line in Fig. 1; coir ber backed with air gap. The higher porosity
illustrated broadband sound absorption and was generally better.
Reduction of porosity caused the incident sound to reect from
the plate except near the resonance bands. Peaks were moved to

lower frequencies but absorption was greatly reduced at points

far from the resonances. Fig. 7 is corresponding to combination
(b) in Fig. 3 and again two severities were examined. Porosity of
the plate had inuence in adjusting the amount of low frequency

Author's personal copy

248

M. Hosseini Fouladi et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 241249

Absorption Coefficient

0.8

0.6

0.4

50 mm coir fiber backed with 80 mm air gap

0.2

50 mm coir fiber backed with PP (R=0.001 m, D=0.018 m, d=0.001 m)

and 35 mm air gap

0
0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

Freq. (Hz)
Fig. 8. Absorption coefcient of 50 mm coir ber backed with: Solid line; 80 mm air gap, dashed line; PP (R = 0.001 m, D = 0.018 m, d = 0.001 m) and 35 mm air gap.

absorption. In this order, sound wave owed through the ber

layer rst and high frequency components were absorbed beforehand prior to getting to the PP.
Utilization of PP did not help to improve the low and medium
frequency absorption at the same time as it was sought earlier.
After proper adjustments of porosity, PP enhanced the sound
absorption of material in the same way as air gap did. Peaks were
moved toward low frequencies but at the same time medium frequency values were reduced. The positive point was that the
implementation of PP assisted to reduce the thickness of porous
material. An example is presented in Fig. 8. Solid line is regarding
the acoustic absorption of 50 mm coir ber backed with 80 mm air
gap. Dashed line showed that addition of PP helped to reduce the
air gap thickness to 35 mm while the acoustic behavior of material
was still the same. The third peak was attened but absorption was
still high around 80%. Therefore employment of PP may be very
useful while thickness of sound isolator plays an important role
in real applications.

porosity of the plate had small inuence in adjusting the amount

of low frequency absorption. In the condition that PP was in front
of coir ber, low porosity of plate caused the most of incident
sound to reect from the plate. Therefore sound waves could not
reach the bers and medium and high frequency absorption were
greatly reduced. Coir ber has naturally good acoustical absorption
in medium and high frequency bands. Observation of different
arrangements showed that utilization of PP may help to improve
low frequency absorption of coir ber while medium frequency
values vanished. Previous studies had shown that the same phenomenon was detectable if increasing the thickness of air gap in
coir berair gap combination. The advantage of adding PP to coir
berair gap combination was that it helped to greatly reduce the
thickness of air gap while the acoustical performance remained intact. Hence it is an efcient tool to reduce the thickness of acoustic
isolators in practical purposes.

3. Conclusion

[1] Nor MJM, Jamaludin N, Tamiri FM. A preliminary study of sound absorption
using multi-layer coconut coir bers. Electron J: Tech Acoust 2004. Available
from: <http://webcenter.ru/~eeaa/ejta/>.
[2] Zulkii R, Nor MJM, Tahir MFM, Ismail AR, Nuawi MZ. Acoustic properties of
multilayer coir bres sound absorption panel. J Appl Sci 2008;8(20):370914.
[3] Tamiri FM. Rekabentuk dan pengujian panel penyerap bunyi semi-aktif
menggunakan bahan sabut kelapa (Design and testing of semi-active sound
absorption panel using coir ber material). Master thesis, Department of
Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia; 2005.
[4] Bolt RH. On the design of perforated facings for acoustic materials. J Acoust Soc
Am 1947;19:91721.
[5] Ingard U, Bolt RH. Absorption characteristics of acoustic material with
perforated facings. J Acoust Soc Am 1951;23:53340.
[6] Ingard U. On the theory and design of acoustic resonators. J Acoust Soc Am
1953;25:103761.
[7] Ingard U. Notes on sound absorption technology. New York: Noise Control
Foundation; 1994.
[8] Allard JF. Propagation of sound in porous media. Elsevier Applied Science;
1993.
[9] Beranek LL, Ver IL. Noise and vibration control engineering. New York: Wiley;
1992.
[10] Takahashi D. A new method for predicting the sound absorption of perforated
absorber systems. Appl Acoust 1997;51(1):7184.
[11] Toyoda M, Takahashi D. Reduction of acoustic radiation by impedance control
with a perforated absorber system. J Sound Vib 2005;286:60114.

Enhancement of coir ber acoustical absorption was sought in

this paper. PP was added to coir berair gap layers to improve
such behavior. Four analytical techniques were examined and validated through experimental measurement in impedance tube. The
PP modeling approaches, namely; Allard, Beranek and Ver, and
Atalla and Sgard were based on analyzing the PP according to back
layer and then adding layers together by conventional methods
like ATA. Allard TF procedure was founded on representing each
layer by a transfer function. Thereafter these TFs were multiplied
together to obtain the resultant TF of material. This TF was utilized
to calculate the surface acoustic impedance and absorption coefcient of structure. Both PP methods and Allard TF technique conduced to reasonable outcomes but generally Allard TF approach
was closer to experimental values and predicted the resonances
very well. Therefore it was implemented for further analyses of
various arrangements of PP, ber and air gap. Both combinations
of putting PP before or after the ber layer were eligible to improve
the absorption. When coir ber was backed by PP and air gap,

References

Author's personal copy

M. Hosseini Fouladi et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 241249

[12] Toyoda M, Tanaka M, Takahashi D. Reduction of acoustic radiation by
perforated board and honeycomb layer systems. Appl Acoust 2007;68:7185.
[13] Chen KT. Study on the acoustic transmission loss of a rigid perforated screen.
Appl Acoust 1996;47(4):30318.
[14] Kang J, Fuchs HV. Predicting the absorption of open weave textiles and microperforated membranes backed by an air space. J Sound Vib
1999;220(5):90520.
[15] Chen WH, Lee FC, Chiang DM. On the acoustic absorption of porous materials
with different surface shapes and perforated plates. J Sound Vib
2000;237(2):33755.
[16] Lee FC, Chen WH. Acoustic transmission analysis of multi-layer absorbers. J
Sound Vib 2001;248(4):62134.
[17] Atalla N, Panneton R, Sgard FC, Olny X. Acoustic absorption of macroperforated porous materials. J Sound Vib 2001;243(4):65978.
[18] Sgard FC, Olny X, Atalla N, Castel F. On the use of perforations to improve the
sound absorption of porous materials. Appl Acoust 2005;66:62551.
[19] Atalla N, Sgard F. Modeling of perforated plates and screens using rigid frame
porous models. J Sound Vib 2007;303:195208.
[20] Sakagami K, Morimoto M, Yairi M, Minemura A. A pilot study on improving the
absorptivity of a thick microperforated panel absorber. Appl Acoust
2008;69:17982.
[21] Sakagami K, Morimoto M, Yairi M. A note on the relationship between the
sound absorption by microperforated panels and panel/membrane-type
absorbers. Appl Acoust 2009;70:11316.
[22] Kang J, Brocklesby MW. Feasibility of applying micro-perforated absorbers in
acoustic window systems. Appl Acoust 2005;66:66989.

249

[23] Panteghini A, Genna F, Piana E. Analysis of a perforated panel for the correction
of low frequency resonances in medium size rooms. Appl Acoust
2007;68:1086103.
[24] Lee DH, Kwon YP. Estimation of the absorption performance of multiple layer
perforated panel systems by transfer matrix method. J Sound Vib
2004;278:84760.
[25] Congyun Z, Qibai H. A method for calculating the absorption coefcient of a
multi-layer absorbent using the electro-acoustic analogy. Appl Acoust
2005;66:87987.
[26] Lee YY, Lee EWM, Ng CF. Sound absorption of a nite exible micro-perforated
panel backed by an air cavity. J Sound Vib 2005;287:22743.
[27] Pfretzschner J, Cobo P, Simon F, Cuesta M, Fernandez A. Microperforated
insertion units: An alternative strategy to design microperforated panels. Appl
Acoust 2006;67:6273.
[28] Zou J, Shen Y, Yang J, Qiu X. A note on the prediction method of reverberation
absorption coefcient of double layer micro-perforated membrane. Appl
Acoust 2006;67:10611.
[29] Aygun H, Attenborough K. The insertion loss of perforated porous plates in a
duct without and with mean air ow. Appl Acoust 2008;69:50613.
[30] Rayleigh L. Theory of sound. London: Macmillan; 1940.
[31] Dunn IP, Davern WA. Calculation of acoustical impedance of multilayer
absorbers. Appl Acoust 1986;19:32134.
[32] ISO 10534-2. Determination of sound absorption coefcient and impedance in
impedance tubes part 2: transfer function method; 1998.
[33] Ballagh KO. Acoustical properties of wool. Appl Acoust 1996;48(2):10120.