DefinePK

Abstract

Oil palm Mesocarp from oil palm tree is an abundant natural fiber which found in Malaysia. This work was carried out to investigate the sound absorption coefficient of the oil palm Mesocarp fiber also categorized as porous material. These natural fiber were intermixed with Polyurethane (PU) as binder. Various binder percentages are; 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% used. The measurement of sound absorption coefficient was done by using analytical and experimental method where Johnson-Champoux-Allard model as analytical and Impedance Tube Method experiment respectively. This study also investigated the physical properties of the prepared samples. PU compresses the fiber gaps tightly causing the pores closed and consequently resulting in lower flow resistivity and porosity. The viscous characteristic length and density were inversely towards the value of flow resistivity and porosity. It shows that increase of binder percentage produced more compacted (denser) material and thereby, stiffness of the material was affected. The result of Johnson-Champoux-Allard model predicted the absorption coefficient very well and similar to the experimental. The sample with 10% PU binder shows the greater performance in most of low to mid frequency range. However, sample with 20% PU binder reach the high value of sound absorption of 0.99 at 1000 Hz. Finally, it can be concluded that oil palm Mesocarp can be classified as sound absorption material which accomplished in this research and shows that, it’s capable to be used as sound absorption panel in various applications.