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Textile Research Journal Vol 80(18): 1949–1957 DOI: 10.1177/0040517510373639 © The Author(s), 2010. Reprints and permissions:
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TRJ 1950 Textile Research Journal 80(18)
tion via heat loss due to sound pressure variations. machine of gauge 14, using the nylon/spandex 70D/20D
Perforated panels in combination with air-back cavity and yarn as the outer layer yarns and 150Den/64F textured pol-
rigid backing, which are considered as a kind of Helmholtz yester multifilament as the spacer yarns. The yarn path
resonator, have been used widely in various noise control notation of the fabric structure is shown in Figure 1. This
applications [6]. Microperforated panels (MPPs) with the was a weft-knitted spacer fabric specially designed for
hole diameter under millimeter (0.5–1 mm) have been rec- sound absorption. In this fabric structure, both the top and
ognized as one of the most promising alternatives for next- bottom layers are produced with varied plain knitted struc-
generation sound absorbing materials [7]. ture and they are interconnected together with six separate
As a kind of porous material, textiles such as nonwoven, spacer yarns through tuck stitches. The fabric sample after
woven, and knitted fabrics have recently attracted great a steaming treatment is shown in Figure 2. It can be seen
attention for sound absorption application due to their that lots of void pores between two outer layers are formed
low-cost and low environment impact [8–10]. A number of due to the interconnection of textured polyester multifila-
investigations on nonwoven fiber webs in terms of the ment yarns. Thus, this weft-knitted spacer fabric could be
noise-absorption properties and theoretical analyses have considered as a kind of porous sound absorber. In addi-
been conducted in this area [11]. However, despite their tion, the slits formed between the adjacent spacer yarns are
promising noise absorption properties and low cost, it is good for sound waves to penetrate into the fabric.
difficult to produce a textured surface for nonwovens with The warp-knitted spacer fabric used in this study was
an aesthetically pleasing appearance. Thus nonwoven fiber denoted as sample B, and it was produced on a KARL
webs are usually draped with a woven fabric [12]. Plain MAYER RD 6 N E24 double-needle bar Raschel machine
weft-knitted fabric was also proposed for application in of gauge 24, which is equipped with six yarn guide bars.
sound absorption, but its noise absorption performance is The chain notation and material used for each bar are
poor [10]. In order to improve the noise absorption ability listed in Table 1. Different from the weft-knitted spacer
of knitted fabrics, spacer structures were first introduced fabric sample, the spacer yarn used in the warp spacer fab-
by Dias et al. [13, 14]. Their studies focused on the sound ric was monofilament yarn. The fabric sample after dyeing
absorption properties and theoretical modeling of weft- is shown in Figure 3. It can be seen that the holes in the
knitted spacer fabrics, which are composed of two plain elliptical form are regularly distributed on the fabric sur-
knitted surface layers and a spacer layer made of multifila- face. The perforated ratio, which is defined as the ratio
ment yarns through tuck stitches. They found that the between the surface area of the holes and the total area,
sound absorbency of the weft-knitted spacer fabric is effec- was 5.4%. As the minor axis of each hole is smaller than
tive only from 2000 Hz onwards. Furthermore, they also one millimeter, the fabric could be modeled as a microper-
studied the sound absorbency of the weft-knitted spacer forated panel (MPP) absorber. Besides, the void spacer
fabric made of monofilament yarn as a spacer yarn, in com- between the two outer layers could be considered as an air
bination with a uniform pattern of micropores on the sur- gap.
faces. Their work showed that this kind of fabric could All the fabric samples were conditioned for 24 hours at
provide reasonable absorbability at mid-high frequencies, 20 °C and 65% relative humidity before testing. The struc-
but with a narrower absorption frequency range. Though tural details of two kinds of fabrics after being conditioned
knitted spacer fabrics are more expensive than nonwovens,
their appearances and structures are designable and this
characteristic can raise their added values.
This paper reports an investigation on the sound
absorption behavior of both weft and warp-knitted spacer
fabrics and their combinations. The objective is to find out
a sound absorber with improved sound absorbency at
lower frequencies with a relatively wider absorption fre-
quency range.
Experimental
Samples
Both the weft and warp knitted spacer fabrics and their
combinations were used in this study. The weft-knitted
spacer fabric used was denoted as sample A, and it was Figure 1 Yarn path notation of weft-knitted spacer fabric.
knitted on a Stoll CMS 822 E7.2 computerized flat knitting
Sound Absorption Behavior of Knitted Spacer Fabrics Y. Liu and H. Hu 1951 TRJ
Table 1 Chain notation and yarns used for warp-knitted spacer fabric.
Chain notation Yarn
GB1 1-0-0-0/1-2-2-2/2-3-3-3/3-4-4-4/4-5-5-5/4-3-3-3/3-2-2-2/2-1-1-1// 150D/48F polyester
GB2 4-5-5-5/4-3-3-3/3-2-2-2/2-1-1-1/1-0-0-0/1-2-2-2/2-3-3-3/3-4-4-4// 150D/48F polyester
GB3 1-0-1-2/1-2-1-0// 30D/1F polyester
GB4 2-3-4-5/3-2-1-0// 30D/1F polyester
GB5 4-4-4-5/4-4-4-3/3-3-3-2/2-2-2-1/1-1-1-0/1-1-1-2/2-2-2-3/3-3-3-4// 150D/48F polyester
GB6 1-1-1-0/1-1-1-2/2-2-2-3/3-3-3-4/4-4-4-5/4-4-4-3/3-3-3-2/2-2-2-1// 150D/48F polyester
TRJ 1952 Textile Research Journal 80(18)
slower after two layers, and the effect of increasing the Based on the sound absorption principle of MPPs, it is
thickness on the NACs is no longer observed after five lay- possible to fabricate different kinds of warp-knitted spacer
ers. To further improve the NACs, other methods such as fabrics with different frequency characteristics. The
increasing the porosity, airflow resistivity and fabric sur- lamination with different warp-knitted spacer fabrics or
face smoothness or a combination of different kinds of fab- the use of different mesh size on the same fabric can be
rics, could be considered. The peaks around 1600 Hz found potential ways to achieve a broader absorption frequency
in Figure 7 for the absorbers laminated from two to eight range.
layers of spacer fabrics could be the resonance of the sys-
tem.
For MPP absorbers, the NACs depend on the perfora- Sound absorption behavior of combined
tion ratio, dimension of the perforated holes, thickness of multilayered spacer fabrics
the panel and thickness of the air-back cavity. The MPP In industrial applications, multilayered sound absorbers
absorbers provide high absorbability at mid-high frequen- composed of both perforated panels and porous materials
cies. However, their absorption frequency ranges are nor- are widely adopted for broadband noise absorptions [15].
mally limited because of their nature as a resonator. To In this regard, the sound absorption behavior of multilay-
obtain a wider frequency range for sound absorption, the ered spacer fabrics laminated with different combinations
combination of multilayered MPP absorbers with different of sample A (porous material) and sample B (perforated
frequency characteristics or the use of a MPP absorber panel) were studied. Two cases, where sample A was
with different size of perforated holes are always adopted. placed on the front or the back of sample B, were consid-
The NACs of the MPP absorbers formed with different ered.
layers of warp-knitted spacer fabrics are shown in Figure 8. The NACs of different layers of sample B backed with
It can be found that the NACs significantly increase with one layer of sample A are shown in Figure 9. Compared
the increase of fabric layers. In addition, the resonance with Figure 8, it can be noticed that the sound absorbability
phenomena are observed for all the fabric layers and their of the warp-knitted fabrics can be considerably improved by
resonance region shifts towards the lower frequency side backing one layer of sample A. Moreover, it can also be
with an increase of the fabric layers. By examining the found that the resonance regions shift towards the lower fre-
curve of the thickest absorbers formed with eight layers of quency side when the layers of sample B increase. This
sample B, two peaks respectively at 2128 Hz and 6184 Hz phenomenon has already been observed in Figure 8. How-
are found due to resonance. According to the curves in ever, the NACs for the low frequencies under 500Hz are
Figure 8, it can be predicted that the NAC will continu- still less than 0.5, which is a critical value normally used to
ously increase with increase of the fabric layers. Thus, it is assess whether a sound absorber is good or not. As two-lay-
expected that an absorber with better sound absorbability ered weft-knitted spacer fabrics already have a very obvi-
can be obtained if enough layers are used. This behavior is ous improvement of the sound absorption capacity at lower
different from that of the sound absorbers formed with dif-
ferent layers of weft-knitted spacer fabric, as explained
before.
Figure 8 NACs of warp-knitted spacer fabrics laminated Figure 9 NACs of different layers of B backed with one
with different layers. layer of A.
Sound Absorption Behavior of Knitted Spacer Fabrics Y. Liu and H. Hu 1955 TRJ
Figure 10 NACs of different layers of B backed with two Figure 11 NACs of one layer of A backed with different
layers of A. layers of B.
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