Developing thin acoustic panels for sound absorption in architectural applications

有效和高效的噪声控制，特别是低频噪声的吸收，一直是交通、制造业、建筑业等许多工业部门面临的重大技术挑战。在许多生活、工作和娱乐场所，安静是非常必要的。噪声是给人类健康带来严重负面影响的污染源，如听力障碍、心理疾病等。现有的吸声材料一般不具备足够的消声能力。此外，常用的吸声材料，如非织造布、矿物棉、玻璃纤维和泡沫材料，由于纤维型材料可能会将纤维释放到空气中，因此对环境和健康有很大的不利影响。迫切需要开发高性能、良好的、环境友好的吸声材料。 CedarCrest木制品有限公司是该项目的工业合作伙伴，专业生产建筑用轻质板材已有27年以上的历史。目前，CedarCrest已经收到了相当多的申请，要求为建筑应用提供隔音天花板或墙面瓷砖。对于CedarCrest来说，开发新的吸声面板产品，以加强其在现有建筑材料市场的领先地位，并开发新的商机，具有重要的战略意义。 这项提议的动机是设计和制造高性能、薄和轻质的声学面板。与工业合作伙伴一起，我们的目标是最大限度地减少现有材料的材料变化，减少面板厚度，但提高吸声性能，并保持建筑应用的结构完整性。

Effective and efficient noise control, particularly the low-frequencies noise absorption, has been a major technical challenge in many industrial sectors such as transportation, manufacturing, construction, etc.. Quietness is highly desired in many living, working and entertainment places. Noise is a source of pollution that brings seriously negative impact on human health, such as hearing impairment and psychological diseases. The existing sound absorbing materials are generally not competent enough to eliminate noise. In addition, the commonly used sound absorbing materials such as nonwovens, mineral wool, fibrous glass and foam materials, have great environmental disadvantages and health concerns because the fibrous type materials may release fibers into the air. It is urgently required to develop high performance sound and environmentally friendly materials for effective sound absorption. CedarCrest Wood Products Ltd., the industrial partner of this project, is specialized in producing lightweight panels for construction industry for more than 27 years. Currently, CedarCrest has received considerable amount of requests to provide acoustical ceiling or wall tiles for architectural applications. It is strategically important for CedarCrest to develop new acoustic panel products in order to strengthen their leader position in the existing market of construction materials and to develop new business opportunities as well. The motivation of this proposal is to design and fabricate high performance, thin and lightweight acoustic panels. Together with the industrial partner, our goal is to minimize the material change from the existing materials being used and decrease the panel thickness, but improve the sound absorption performance and maintain the structure integrity for architectural applications.