Noise is frequently unnoticed, but it is one of the causes of unhealth for human beings reducing people’s quality of life. There are many materials that can be considered as acoustic absorbents. Textiles can be used to both improve the acoustic quality of and to decorate the room where they have been placed. In this study, we used some fabrics with 15, 20 and 30 ends/cm and 15, 20 and 30 picks/cm. The acoustic absorption coefficient was measured when the fabric was added as a resistive layer on top of a nonwoven made of polyester fiber. Results evidence that these fabrics can be efficiently used to modify the acoustic absorption of the nonwoven. Sound absorption coefficients measured via the impedance tube method show that these modifications occur. The results show how it is possible to improve the acoustic characteristics of a simple nonwoven to obtain sound absorption coefficients close to values of 1 at different frequencies by choosing a fabric with the appropriate combination of warp and weft count.

Textile materials can be used as acoustic materials. In this study, the acoustic absorption coefficient of multilayer fabrics with 60 ends/cm and 15, 30, 45, and 60 picks/cm is measured when the fabric is added as a resistive layer on top of a polyester nonwoven, in order to study the influence of the fabric spatial structure in the acoustic absorption of the assembly. Five different fabric structures are used. Design of experiments and data analysis tools are used to describe the influence of two manufacturing factors on the sound absorption coefficient of the ensemble. These factors are the fabric weft count (picks/cm) and the thickness of the nonwoven (mm). The experimental conditions under which the maximum sound absorption coefficient is achieved are found. The influence of each factor and a mathematical model are obtained. Results of statistical and optimization analysis show that for the same fabric density, sound absorption coefficient increases as the number of layers decreases.