Luoyang University Students Developed Aluminum Fiber Sound Absorbing Board

Wang Xiaodan is a senior student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Luoyang Institute of Technology. During the summer vacation of 2009, Wang Xiaodan, who was still a sophomore, was traveling in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. The noise from the subway sparked a strong interest in her studies of materials, and ultimately led to a "big idea".

The subway operates in a closed environment and should generate a lot of noise. However, why can people still easily talk to each other in the subway? "Throughout the entire journey, this issue has been troubling Wang Xiaodan. After returning to school, Wang Xiaodan immediately approached the teacher and asked about the "mystery" here. There is a sound barrier material installed on the top of the subway, which can absorb sound and reduce noise. "The teacher's answer made Wang Xiaodan suddenly clear. However, the teacher's next words once again plunged Wang Xiaodan into contemplation.

The teacher told her that the general sound barrier materials are inorganic fibers and plant fibers. Due to the humid environment of the subway, over time, these materials will pulverize due to excessive water absorption, affecting their sound absorption effect. Since these materials are prone to pulverization, why not use more durable alternative materials? "Wang Xiaodan began to develop an interest in new materials.

Two years of experiments have yielded fruitful results

With the help of the teacher, Wang Xiaodan consulted a large amount of data on sound barrier materials and ultimately found that metal sound absorbing materials are more suitable for research and have good prospects. In order to better explore and study the application effect of metal sound absorbing materials in subway sound barriers, under the guidance of the teacher, Wang Xiaodan officially formed his own "research team", consisting of a total of three members, all from the Materials Science and Engineering Department of Luoyang Institute of Technology, including Fang Baolei of the same grade and Zhang Mingzhu, who is one year younger than them.

Since the establishment of the project in 2009, Wang Xiaodan's research team has spent two years through experiments and repeated testing, referring to relevant foreign reports, to produce a new type of sound barrier material for subways - aluminum fiber sound-absorbing panels.

Broad prospects for new materials

How about aluminum fiber sound-absorbing board?

The main raw materials of the widely used sound barrier materials for subways are only produced in Japan, and the cost of application in China is relatively high. The new type of subway sound barrier material produced by Wang Xiaodan's scientific research team at Luoyang Institute of Technology is not only ultra-thin and lightweight, with excellent sound absorption performance, but also easy to process and install, with lower costs.

Performance tests have shown that this new material has comparable performance in terms of sound absorption and other aspects to imported sound-absorbing boards, "said Wang Xiaodan. More importantly, its price is significantly lower than that of imported raw materials.

Wang Xiaodan said that the new type of sound barrier material they have developed can not only be used in subways, but also in walls or ceilings of large spaces such as airports and music halls. It can also be used as a sound barrier for elevated highways, highways, substations or cooling towers, and as a sound absorbing material for underground humid environments such as sports fields and tunnels. The prospect is very broad.