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Procedia Engineering 53 (2013) 632 638

Malaysian Technical Universities Conference on Engineering & Technology 2012, MUCET 2012
Part 2 Mechanical And Manufacturing Engineering

Utilizing Sugarcane Wasted Fibers As A Sustainable Acoustic Absorber


Azma Putra*, Yasseer Abdullah, Hady Efendy, Wan Mohd Farid,
Md Razali Ayob and Muhammad Sajidin Py
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM)
Hang Tuah Jaya 76100, Melaka, Malaysia

Abstract

The use of synthetic materials as acoustic absorbers is still applied extensively in building industry. These nonbiodegradable materials do not only cause pollution to the environment, but their production also contributes significantly in
emitting green house gas in the atmosphere. Corresponding research has therefore being driven to find sustainable and ecofriendly materials to be an alternative sound absorber. This paper discusses the utilization of natural fibers from sugarcane
waste to be an acoustic material. Sound absorber samples from sugarcane wasted fibers are fabricated and their acoustic
properties are investigated through experiment. Good acoustic performance is found at 1.2 - 4.5 kHz with average
absorption coefficient of 0.65 and is comparable against that from the classical synthetic absorber.
2013
Published
by Elsevier
Ltd. Ltd.

2013The
TheAuthors.
Authors.
Published
by Elsevier
Selection and
peer-review
under under
responsibility
of the Research
Management
& Innovation
Universiti
Malaysia
Selection
and/or
peer-review
responsibility
of the Research
Management
&Centre,
Innovation
Centre,
Universiti Malaysia
Perlis
Perlis.
Keywords: sugarcane waste; acoustic material; sound absorber; natural fibers; absorption coefficient Introduction

1. Introduction
The issue of conserving hygienic condition and environment and its relation with global warming has attracted attention
of researchers for new technologies which is more environmentally friendly. Besides finding alternative energy to limit the
use of fossil fuels and deforestation, attempts are also directed to create products from recyclable and sustainable materials.
For application in buildings, which emphasizes sound quality in a room such as mosque, theatre hall, music studio, lecture
room, cinema and meeting room, the classical abrasive and porous acoustic materials are still widely used. This room
should be well controlled in order to provide good quality of speech intelligibility for the audience.
Production of these synthetic materials has been known to release significant CO2 into the atmosphere compared to that
of panels made from natural materials [1]. The synthetic nature of the former also creates another problem in disposition
which is harmful to the environment. Continuation of their usage is therefore against the effort to realize a
environment. Thus finding alternative green materials which have not only comparable capability as sound absorbers, but
also bio-degradable, sustainable, abundance as well as less health risk are of interest.

* Corresponding author. E-mail address: azma.putra@utem.edu.my

1877-7058 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.


Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Research Management & Innovation Centre, Universiti Malaysia Perlis
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2013.02.081

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633

1.1. Established Works on Natural Absorbers


Several works have been done concerning the ability of natural fiber to be employed as sound absorber. Koizumi et
al. [2] investigated acoustical properties of bamboo fiber. This is found to have an equivalent sound absorption with glass
wool.
Yang et al. [3] employed rice straw-wood particle board to substitute wood. A comparison was then made with a
common industrial-made plywood for analysis. It is found that the rice straw-wood particle with lower specific gravity gives
better sound absorption at a range of 1 8 kHz compared to plywood and fiberboard.
Alessandro and Pispola [4] tested kenaf fiber in reverberation room and the results were compared with traditional
fibrous absorbers. The results are slightly poorer but still comparable if impacts on environment are taken into account.
Saadatnia et al. [5] conducted an experiment on wheat and barley straws made into acoustic boards. The sound Ersoy and
Kucuk [6] uncovered the potential of waste industrial tea-leaf as an acoustic material. It is shown that acoustic properties of
tea-leaf-fiber increases significantly when backing with a single woven cotton cloth. For 10 mm thickness, sound absorption
of tea-leaf-fiber is comparable to traditional sound absorbers i.e. polyester.
Wasted ramie fiber treated and non-treated with alkalization can also produce promising result with average absorption
coefficient of 0.6 at frequency range of 315 Hz - 3.2 kHz [7].
Several studies on coir fiber have also been discussed to investigate the effect of perforated facing, multiple-layer
arrangement and compression on its acoustic performance. Numerical method was established to support the experimental
data. Overall, coir fiber is naturally good sound absorber at medium and high frequency at 1.5 - 5 kHz [8-12].
Investigation on the acoustic properties of arenga pinnata fibers which can be found from a palm sugar tree has been
reported [13, 14]. With thickness of 40 mm, it has good sound absorption coefficient of 0.75 - 0.88 at frequency between 2
5 kHz [14].
Abdullah et al. [15] studied the acoustic properties of paddy fibers. Good sound absorption performance is found at
frequency range of 2 - 3.5 kHz with absorption coefficient of 0.6 - 0.9.
Fatima and Mohanty [16] experimentally investigated the sound absorption of jute fiber. It is shown that jute fiber
without any treatment gives better acoustics properties compared to that with treatment at frequency 1 - 4 kHz. The
flammability is also comparable to that of the conventional synthetic absorbers.
Unmodified straw and reed have also been investigated for its acoustic properties. These natural non-fibrous materials
are found to have a good absorption coefficient from 500 Hz 5 kHz. The prediction model is also developed [17].
This paper discusses the potential of another natural fiber to be an alternative acoustic material, namely the sugarcane
1.2. Sugarcane Fibers
Sugarcane or Saccharum officinarum in its Latin name is commonly found in equatorial countries such as Brazil, India,
Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia. On average, a hectare of sugarcane generates about 10 tons of sugarcane waste, also
kn
are usually burned in-situ in order to clear the field for the next crop. Some efforts have also been done to utilize the waste
for paper [19].
From its physical appearances, the sugarcane (waste) consisted of tiny and soft fibers which can potentially be a good
sound absorber. The soft fibers might carry the strength problem, but this can be covered if it is coupled with another strong
material.
Measurement using Inverted Research Microscope (IRM) in Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, UTeM shows that
diameter of the sugarcane fibers ranges from 11-23 m.

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Azma Putra et al. / Procedia Engineering 53 (2013) 632 638


Fig. 1.Sugarcane wasted fibers (bagasse).

2. Methodology
2.1. Sugarcane Fibers Fabrication of Absorber Sample
These Construction from fibers into an absorber sample is divided into two stages, namely the pre-treatment stage and
fabrication stage. In the pre-treatment stage, raw material was cut into 1 to 3 mm length. It was then sundried for 1 week and
again heated in the oven at 800C for 5 minutes to let the excess water in the fiber evaporated. Later, raw material was cut
into 5 to 10 mm length.
In the preparation stage, the raw material was mixed with different composition of binder. Here the binders used are
polyurethane and polyester. The mixture was then hot-pressed in a mould to obtain a round shape. The pressure given are
just enough for the sample to take shape. This is to retain the porosity of the sample. The flow chart of this process is shown
in Fig. 2.
The constructed absorber sample has diameter of 33 mm to fit in the impedance tube diameter in the sound absorption
test with thickness of roughly inch as seen in Fig. 3. For each type of the binder used, there are four different weight
composition ratios of fibers to binder; 90:10, 80:20, 70:30 and 60:40. The weight of the fibers is fixed for 1 gram and 3
grams.
2.2. Measurement of absorption coefficient
The measurement of sound absorption coefficient (denoted as ) was performed in an impedance tube by applying twomicrophone transfer function method according to ISO 10534-2:2001
Prepolarized free-amplifier (GRAS 26CA). RT Pro Photon v6.34
analyzer with Dactron software was used as the data acquisition system. The signal processing of the measured data was
done using Matlab. With diameter of the tube i.e. 33 mm, the reliable frequency range for this experiment is between 500
Hz to 4.5 kHz.

Pretreatment stage

Raw sugarcane fibers

Sundried for one week

Oven heat 80o C for


5 minutes

Fibers cut into 5-10 mm length

Fabrication stage

Sample fiber

Mixing with certain composition


of binder

Hot press

Sound absorber sample

Fig. 2. Flow chart of absorber sample construction process

Azma Putra et al. / Procedia Engineering 53 (2013) 632 638

635

Fig. 3. Constructed sample of sound absorber from sugarcane fibers

Fig. 4 shows the measurement setup for the test. The sample was placed at the end of the impedance tube and backed by
a rigid surface. The loudspeaker feeds the white noise signal in the tube where the incident and reflected sound pressure
recorded by the microphones are then processed to have the absorption coefficient of the sample.
Spectrum analyzer

Computer
Microphones

Removable cap
(rigid)

Loudspeaker

Sample
Noise
generator

Amplifier

Fig. 4. Measurement setup for the sound absorption test.

3. Result and Discussion


Figs. 5 and 6 plot the acoustic absorption of 1 gram sugarcane waste fibers using polyurethane and polyester,
respectively. The results show that the composition of binder (up to 40%) does not significantly affect the performance of
above 3.5 kHz. The absorption coefficient increases until it reaches the value of 4.5 kHz at 0.78. This applies for both types
of binders.
Fig. 7 shows the absorption coefficient for samples with higher densities. The thickness is maintained as inch while the
fiber weight is increased to three times i.e. 3 grams. Since the binder does not affect the absorption performance
significantly, only results using one binder with different compositions are discussed.
Unlike the results in Figs. 5 and 6, the weight composition of binder and fibers does show significant effect. However, no
consistent trend is shown from the results. It is expected for 1 gram of fibers (Figs. 5 and 6) to also show this phenomenon.
This might be due to the process during the cold press of which notes should be taken. Here it is found that composition of
70:30 gives the best acoustic performance with > 0.5 at frequency 1- 4.5 kHz.

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Azma Putra et al. / Procedia Engineering 53 (2013) 632 638


1
60:40
70:30
80:20
90:10

0.9

absorption coefficient

0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
500

1000

1500

2000
2500
3000
frequency (Hz)

3500

4000

4500

Fig. 5. Measured absorption coefficient of 1 gram sugarcane fibers using polyurethane.

1
0.9

absorption coefficient

0.8

60:40
70:30
80:20
90:10

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
500

1000

1500

2000
2500
3000
frequency (Hz)

3500

4000

4500

Fig. 6. Measured absorption coefficient of 1 gram sugarcane fibers using polyester.

Fig. 8 compares the samples having 1 gram and 3 grams weight fibers with the same composition of binder, i.e. 70:30. It
can be seen that more fibers give better sound absorption. This can be explained as the denser the acoustic panel, the greater
the flow resistivity. The airflow resistance becomes high because of fiber arrangement inside the panel is too close and
effectively. It shows that the denser absorber sample overcomes t
>
0.5 starting from 1.2 kHz with average absorption coefficient of 0.65.
Fig. 9 compares the acoustic performance of sugarcane absorber sample with that of 3 layers of woven cloth absorber
used for automotive application. The results shown that with the same thickness, sugarcane absorber performance is
comparable to the corresponding commercial product.

Azma Putra et al. / Procedia Engineering 53 (2013) 632 638


1
0.9

absorption coefficient

0.8

60:40
70:30
80:20
90:10

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
500

1000

1500

2000
2500
3000
frequency (Hz)

3500

4000

4500

Fig. 7. Measured absorption coefficient of 3 grams sugarcane fibers using polyurethane.

1
0.9

3 grams
1 gram

absorption coefficient

0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
500

1000

1500

2000
2500
3000
frequency (Hz)

3500

4000

4500

Fig. 8. Effect of density on sound absorption (fiber-binder weight composition 70:30).

1
0.9

woven cloth
sugarcane fiber

absorption coefficient

0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
500

1000

1500

2000
2500
3000
frequency (Hz)

3500

4000

4500

Fig. 9. Comparison of sound absorption coefficient of sugarcane absorber with that of woven cloth sound insulator.

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Azma Putra et al. / Procedia Engineering 53 (2013) 632 638

4. Conclusion
Utilization of sugarcane wasted fibers as an alternative sound absorbing material has been investigated. The effect of
binder composition and fiber density are discussed with the former affects only for the 3 grams fibers and the latter to give
better absorption coefficient. It is found that acoustical performance of the sugarcane absorber with thickness of inch is
comparable with that of commercial sound insulator with average absorption coefficient of 0.65 at frequency 1.2 - 4.5 kHz.
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