The potential of date palm midribs-based fabric acoustic panels for sustainable interior design

This paper presents an experimental study of acoustic absorption of novel fabric acoustic panels utilizing non-woven fabric cores and fabric facings made of date palm midribs-fibers; to be used as absorbent pan-els for spaces with privacy needs. Normal acoustic absorption coefficients of various configurations; dif-ferent densities, thicknesses and facings; were measured using impedance tube. Findings showed that the highest absorption was exhibited by 50 mm-thick midribs-fibers cores. Additionally, 150 kg/m3 cores balanced between high tortuosity and porosity. Results of full assembly tests showed that 30 mm-150 kg/ m3 and 40 mm-100 kg/m3 cores with woven midribs-fibers facings enjoyed significantly high absorption at low frequencies and high frequencies. Additionally, 40 mm-100 kg/m3 and 50 mm-200 kg/m3 cores with cotton facings provided competitive overall performances to commercial acoustic panels while pro-viding flexible interior design options. Thus, interior designers can incorporate midribs-based fabric acoustic panels into their designs as local sustainable absorbent panels to enhance acoustical quality and complement space aesthetics.(c) 2022 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams Uni-versity. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/).