Sound Absorption Materials

Sound absorption? Or sound proofing

If the objective is to stop sound from entering or leaving a space, then you will most likely need sound blocking or sound proofing.

Example:
your neighbor plays loud music at all hours of the day and night. The sound travels from their space into yours.
you live close to a highway or railway. The noise of the traffic keeps you awake. This is a job for sound blocking materials

SOUND ABSORPTION
If the objective is to enhance the properties of sound by improving speech clarity and sound quality, then the answer is sound absorption or acoustic enhancement. EXAMPLES: your staff or students have difficulty clearly hearing in the conference room or auditorium during presentations. your home recording studio requires materials to enhance the quality of recorded music.

 Sound absorption is defined, as the incident sound that strikes a material that is not reflected back. An open window is an excellent absorber since the sounds passing through the open window are not reflected back but makes a poor sound barrier. Painted concrete block is a good sound barrier but will reflect about 97% if the incident sound striking it.

Acoustic absorption is that property of any material that changes the acoustic energy of sound waves into another form, often heat, which it to some extent retains, as opposed to that sound energy that material reflects or conducts.

Why we need sound absorption..?

If you want to prevent the sounds from your media or theatre room from disturbing others in your home or office, sound blocking materials will accomplish the task. In general, if the source of the sound is generated in another room, space or from the outside and is transferring through a wall, ceiling or floor, into your space, then you need sound blocking or sound proofing products.
If your busy restaurant is noisy; with the clatter of dishes, people talking and heels clicking on hard flooring surfaces; this is a job for sound absorption. At home or in the office, high ceilings and large open spaces can create problems. Sound bounces around, creating annoying echoes and making it difficult to carry on normal conversations. Another ideal scenario for sound absorption materials. To summarize, if the source of the sound of noise is generated within the same environment that requires improved sound control, then you will need sound absorption products

SOUND ABSORBING MATERIAL

All materials have some sound absorbing properties. Incident sound energy which is not absorbed must be reflected, transmitted or dissipated. A materials sound absorbing properties can be described as a sound absorption coefficient in a particular frequency range. The coefficient can be viewed as a percentage of sound being absorbed, where 1.00 is complete absorption (100%) and 0.01 is minimal(1%).

BASIC CATEGORIES OF SOUND ABSORBERS:

two basic categories : 1)Porous Absorbers: porous materials commonly
formed of matted or spun fibers.

2) Non-Porous Absorbers (Absorbing Resonators):

There are Two types of non-porous absorbers that are common in industrial applications.

Panel (membrane) absorbers having an impervious surface mounted over an airspace. Resonators created by holes or slots connected to an enclosed volume of trapped air. Ex. Helmholtz resonators(cavity absorbers)

1) Porous absorbers:
Common porous absorbers include carpet, draperies, sprayapplied cellulose, aerated plaster, fibrous mineral wool and glass fiber, open-cell foam, and felted or cast porous ceiling tile. Generally, all of these materials allow air to flow into a cellular structure where sound energy is converted to heat. Porous absorbers are the most commonly used sound absorbing materials. Thickness plays an important role in sound absorption by porous materials. Fabric applied directly to a hard, massive substrate such as plaster orgypsum board does not make an efficient sound absorber due to the very thin layer of fiber. Thicker materials generally provide more bass sound absorption or damping.

Example Of Porous Material

2)Resonators:
Resonators typically act to absorb sound in a narrow frequency range. Resonators include some perforated materials and materials that have openings (holes and slots).The classic example of a resonator is the Helmholtz resonator, which has the shape of a bottle. The resonant frequency is governed by the size of the opening, the length of the neck and the volume of air trapped in the chamber. Typically, perforated materials only absorb the mid-frequency range unless special care is taken in designing the facing to be as acoustically transparent as possible. Slots usually have a similar acoustic response. Long narrow slots can be used to absorb low frequencies. For this reason, long narrow air distribution slots in rooms for acoustic music production should be viewed with suspicion since the slots may absorb valuable low-frequency energy.

Example Of Resonetor

3) Panel Absorbers:
Typically, panel absorbers are non-rigid, non-porous materials which are placed over an airspace that vibrates in a flexural mode in response to sound pressure exerted by adjacent air molecules. Common panel (membrane) absorbers include thin wood paneling over framing, lightweight impervious ceiling sand floors, glazing and other large surfaces capable of resonating in response to sound. Panel absorbers are usually most efficient at absorbing low frequencies. This fact has been learned repeatedly on orchestra platforms where thin wood paneling traps most of the bass sound, robbing the room of warmth.

Example Of Panel Materials

Acoustical demands of an auditorium

For obtaining good acoustical properties,

1)Each syllable from sound source must produce sufficient energy point of the auditorium i.e. sound must be loud and intelligible at every point. 2) Sound of each syllable should soon decay so that the succeeding syllable must be heard distinctly. this means the auditorium must be free from echoes. 3)There should not be undesirable focusing of sound due to walls and ceiling nor there should be present zones of silence or region of poor audibly anywhere in the auditorium. 4)There should not be any unpleasant reinforcement of any of the overtones of a complex sound so that the tonal quality of sound is not affected. 5)Extraneous noise must be avoided. 6)Echelon effect must be made minimum.

Condition for good acoustics

A hall or an auditorium is said to be good if, 1)The quality of the sound should be uniform throughout the entire hall or auditorium. 2)There should not be any overlapping of sounds. 3)The loudness of the sound should be uniform throughout the entire hall or auditorium. To achieve this a pubic address system can b used in big halls. 4)The presence or absence of audience should not affect the quality of sound. 5)Resonance effect should be avoided. 6)The hall should have a proper reverberation time. 7)The external noises should not disturb the proceedings inside the hall. 8)There should not be any echelon effect.

Conclusion..

Remedies:
Echo can be avoided by covering long distance walls , high ceiling with suitable sound absorbing material.