The Effectiveness of Coir Fiber and Bamboo Culm as a Sound Absorber

Abstract

Noise is sound pollution that can cause harmful effects on an individual. Synthetic sound panels are used to reduce the harmful effects of sound pollution. These panels harm our respiratory system when exposed for a long time. This study focuses on creating an eco-friendly sound absorption panel that can be a possible substitute for synthetic sound panels. In particular, two sound panels: bamboo sound panels and fiber-only sound panels. The former design begins with attaching the cut bamboo culm to the plyboard and putting the two layers of compressed coir fiber in accordance with the bamboo culm shape and will be covered by black cloth. The latter however excludes the bamboo culm. The effectivity of these panels in absorbing sounds was tested using Reverberation Room Method. A 100 decibel noise is generated inside the room then turned off and measured for the time it will take for the sound level to drop to 25 decibels. The result was statistically analyzed using ANOVA method and shows that both sound panels have significant difference compared to no sound panel. Refer to NRC table, the sound absorption panel comprises coir fiber, and bamboo culm is effective with an average noise reduction 0.25 which is considered good. The sound panel tested only four frequencies: 250, 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz and the maximum absorption coefficient of 0.36 was attained in the frequency of 500 Hz.