Sound absorption of lightweight brick containing expanded polystyrene beads and palm oil fuel ash

Abstract

Bricks are considered as important and strongest materials being used over the years. Commonly, bricks are made of clay mineral and usually used in construction of building wall. The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) and expanded polystyrene beads (EPS) as a brick and its suitability as sound absorption material. POFA is used as partial replacement of cement while EPS as partial replacement of sand in the mortar mixture. Various percentages of EPS and POFA have been used which include 0%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% as sand replacement and from 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% as cement replacement respectively. Sound absorption tests were conducted using impedance tube. From this study, it has been identified that for sound absorption test, lowest result recorded is at maximum 25% POFA replacement with 50% EPS replacement with 0.011 sound absorption coefficient at frequency of 3500 Hz. The best sound absorption coefficient recorded is 0.998 at frequency of 250 Hz for sample with 0% EPS and 20% POFA replacement. It can be recognized that the brick produced have the excellent sound absorption.