Nanomaterials in PU Foam for Enhanced Sound Absorption at Low Frequency Region

Lot of research is going on to develop materials suitable for absorbing sound and reducing noise. By virtue of their superior vibration damping capability and attractive characteristics such as visco elasticity, simple processing and commercial availability, polyurethane foams are extensively applied not only in automotive seats but also in various acoustical parts. However, the sound absorption coefficient of polyurethane foams is high (0.8 1.0) in high frequencies in the range 300 to 10000Hz while it is found to be low (0 to 0.5) at low frequencies (10 to 200 Hz). In this study new polyurethane based porous composites were synthesized by in situ foam rising polymerization of polyol and diisocyanate in the presence of fillers such as nanosilica (NS) and nanoclay (NC). The effect of these fillers at various concentrations up to 2% was studied for sound absorption characteristics in the frequency range 100-200Hz. Sound absorption coefficient was determined using standing wave impedance tube method. The sound absorption coefficient of filled PU foams increases from 0.5 to 0.8 with frequency increase from 100 to 200 Hz at higher content of the nanofillers employed. This research work is further extended to study the sound absorption capacity of unfilled PU foam with varying thickness and also hybrid foams with woven glass (GFC) and polyester cloth (PEC). The unfilled foam with 60mm of thickness gives sound absorption value same as that of 15mm of filled foam. Further enhanced absorption value is achieved with PU/NS-GFC hybrid. The results obtained are explained based on the porosity of composite structure and foam cell size.Key words Polyurethane foam, sound absorption coefficient, nanosilica, nanoclay, low frequency sound.