Variability and Performance Study of the Sound Absorption of Used Cigarette Butts

Abstract

There has been increasing interest in new sustainable materials that can be used as construction materials. Among them, sound-absorbing materials have an important role in both acoustical room conditioning and in room insulation. As a proposal for recycling, one of the most common residues in the world, cigarette butts, is studied. Samples were prepared with used cigarette butts as acoustical absorbent materials. Several samples were prepared and grouped by similarity. Variability analyses of the samples prepared in each group were performed. Moreover, the analysis of some possible influences on absorption properties, such as the length of butts, presence of burnt regions, presence of wrapping paper, etc., were analyzed. The results show the potentiality of this residue to be used as an acoustical absorbent since the absorption coefficients found are greater than 0.8 for frequencies over 2000 Hz. The observed variability in the study group and samples can be considered low, as it was below 2% for the major part of frequencies. Influences on the absorption coefficient, for both the length and status of the butts, were statistically confirmed.

Analysis of the Influence of Thickness and Density on Acoustic Absorption of Materials Made from Used Cigarette Butts

“…Lastly, analyzing the value of the maximum absorption frequency in Figure 10 reveals that the value clearly shifted when increasing the thickness of the sample. This shift of the maximum absorption frequency with the increasing thickness of the samples has also been described in previous studies and compares well with the shift in other samples (glass wool) showing linear behavior [19,21].…”

“…In previous studies related to the use of cigarette butts for making acoustic absorbing materials, the absorption of samples prepared with cigarette butts was quite satisfactory and found to be comparable to or even better than other materials conventionally used for absorption [17][18][19][20]. In the present study, we aimed to perform an in-depth investigation of the use of used cigarette butts for obtaining acoustic absorbing materials.…”

“…The initiatives for recycling were mostly summarized in two recently published papers [14,15]. Between them, the only application of this waste to construction materials is the inclusion of cigarette butts in construction bricks [16] and their utilization for developing acoustic absorbers, a research topic studied by the Lambda Acoustics Laboratory in the last several years [17][18][19][20]. Within this possible use as an acoustical absorber, materials made from used cigarette butts would have potential use for room conditioning, for noise barriers, or as a complement in solutions for acoustical isolation.…”

Initial Conditioning of Used Cigarette Filters for Their Recycling as Acoustical Absorber Materials

“…As a new proposal for recycling this waste, over the past few years our research group has been working on the elaboration of an acoustical absorber material obtained from used cigarette butts. In these studies [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ], absorption of the prepared samples (some of them desegregating the cigarette butt filters, but mainly manually inserting them) was fairly satisfactory, being comparable to or even better than those of some other materials conventionally used for sound absorption.…”

Innovative Composite Materials for Sound Absorption and Insulation: Where We Are and Where We Are Going

“…A second group of papers focused its attention on the use of natural or recycled components to create a skeleton of porous materials with sound-absorbing purposes. Cigarette butts of different lengths and under different conditions (smoked or non-smoked) were used by Gómez Escobar et al [ 6 ] to produce small samples that were tested in a standing wave tube. The results showed that acceptable sound absorption could be obtained from about 2 kHz on, with small variations depending on the butts’ length and smoking conditions.…”