Preliminary Study on Bamboo as Sound Absorber

Abstract

Synthetic acoustic materials are known for their poisonous chemical substance to the environment and also the particles which are harmful to human health. Research is now directed towards finding an alternative acoustic absorber made from natural materials. This paper presents the utilization of bamboo, a natural material having hollow structure to act as sound absorber. In an impedance tube test, the hollow path is arranged to face the sound incidence. The result reveals that bamboo having length of 2 cm has average absorption coefficient of 0.95 at frequency above 3 kHz. Performance at lower frequencies can be controlled by adding the air gap behind the system. Introduction of microholes along the body shows no significant effect to increase the sound absorption.