Utilization of sawdust and coconut coir fiber for producing noise reducing wall tile

Abstract

Today noise control has become a major requirement to provide a calm and pleasing living environment. With the technological development, industrial noises, which are mainly induced by machines, affects negatively on the day-today life of surrounding people. They have faced with many problems mentally and healthily. Noise control and its principles play an important role in creating a pleasing environment. This can be achieved when the intensity of sound is brought down to a level that is not harmful to human ears. Noise barriers, noise absorbers, reflectors are used for noise controlling purpose. This research was conducted to investigate the potential of using saw dust and coconut coir fiber as sound reducers for giving a solution for the existing industrial noise problem. Wall tiles were made by using saw dust. The effects of the thickness of the tiles, their surface condition and the sawdust particle sizes on noise controlling properties were investigated. In addition, panels were casted mixing coconut coir fiber with latex of rubber. Noise Reduction Co-efficient (NRC) of these tiles was investigated by using an experimental setup including signal generator, speakers and noise level meter. The results for the saw dust tiles have showed that there was a significant effect of the tile thickness, surface condition, mix proportion and sawdust particle sizes on NRC. The NRC values obtained for sawdust tiles ranged from 0.1 to 0.5 while that for the coir fiber panels was 0.01-0.6.