Studies on new acoustic eco-materials are gaining importance as there is an increasing understanding about the benefits of the use of environmentally friendly materials. In producing noise control elements it is not only important to recycle but also to manufacture devices with recycled content. A noise barrier is one of the most used devices to reduce high noise levels. For designing these devices, a sound absorbing material is very often used as the core of the barrier. The main goal of this work is the design and testing of novel green sound absorbing materials used as part of noise barriers. Recycled textile materials and nontoxic binder fibers were employed to manufacture the eco-materials studied in this research. Acoustic characterization of prototype noise barriers was carried out in a custom-designed small-scale reverberation chamber for the testing of small samples. Results showed that new materials used in noise barrier prototypes performed very well according to international standards, with performance comparable with those of commercially available noise barriers made of typical sound absorbing materials. These new materials could be part of noise reducing devices incorporating an environmentally conscious technology. (C) 2015 Institute of Noise Control Engineering.
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