DefinePK

Abstract

The main intention of this research is to investigate the achievability of oil palm frond fibre to be utilized as an acoustical control panel. All the chopped oil palm frond fibre is treated with alkaline treatment (2%) to interfacial bonding between fibre and binder and such treatment was needed to alleviate such problem. Natural rubber (latex) is used as a binder. These samples are varied in the mixing percentage of latex, which are 40%, 30%, 20% and without binder noted as 0%. The physical properties of the fibre which are density, porosity, tortuosity and air flow resistivity were investigated experimentally to show that these properties will affect the value of sound absorption coefficient (SAC). From the result obtained, the sample with a high composition of binder tends to have high density and tortuosity, but less porosity. From the result obtained, the SAC value at the lower frequency (< 500 Hz) increased as the density of the sample increased. However, the SAC value of the higher frequency (> 2000 Hz) decreased as the density of the sample decreased due to the large porosity within them. Furthermore, the results of the SAC tests show that at lower frequency (< 500 Hz), SAC of the sample increases with increasing in density, but tend to decrease at higher frequency (>2000 Hz) for denser samples. Same as density, the SAC value at higher frequency (> 2000 Hz) increased as the tortuosity of the sample increased. However, at lower frequency (< 500 Hz), when the tortuosity of the sample increased, the SAC of the fibre decreased. The oil palm frond fibre can be considered as good sound absorber at high frequency, but cannot be considered as good absorber at lower frequency since the value of SAC is below 0.70. In general, oil palm frond fibre shows that it’s suitable as an acoustical panel module at middle frequencies (500 Hz – 1000 Hz) and high frequency sound level which is more than 2000 Hz.