An experimental study on the effects of compression on the acoustic performance of porous fibrous materials

The current investigation experimentally studied the effects of compression on the acoustic performance of porous fibrous material. Two inch and four inch thick samples of fiberglass and three varying densities of mineral wool were tested using two different impedance tube sizes at compression rates of 1, 1.3 and 2. The absorption coefficient was measured using Chung and Blaser’s method. The flow resistivity was measured using Tao et al.’s method. Overall, the 4” samples resulted in steadier results than the 2” samples. Compression generally led to a decrease in absorption coefficient and an increase in flow resistivity. These effects were most evident in the lower frequency range. Although there were some experimental errors in sample preparation, sample variation, compression technique, testing order and other initial errors, the current study demonstrated that the effects of compression on insulation should be not be overlooked.