Development of Acoustic Material using Kapok Fibre for Automotive Application

Acoustic properties of textile materials have been studied for several decades. But, mostly used materials were synthetic, and hence, they were not eco-friendly in nature. Therefore, an attempt was put forward to try the sound absorption Property of natural fibres and their blends by needle-punched nonwoven techniques. Nonwoven fabrics of ideal materials are used as acoustical insulation products because they have high total surface area. The effect of blend proportion of Kapok with polypropylene, fabric GSM, bulk density and distance of fabric from sound source on sound reduction of nonwoven fabrics was investigated. The sound reduction increases with increase in blend proportion of kapok and polypropylene. A nonwoven fabric of kapok and polypropylene 70/30 shows the highest sound reduction potential. As the distance between the fabric and sound sources increases, the sound reduction also increases linearly due to Reduction of sound intensity which reduces the transmission of sound through the fabric. There is a positive correlation between fabric GSM and sound reduction Further of nonwoven samples decreases with increase in kapok and polypropylene blend proportion due to Increase in thickness of samples.