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Reducing Automotive Interior Noise with Natural Fiber Nonwoven Floor Covering Systems
D.V. Parikh, Y. Chen and L. Sun
Textile Research Journal 2006 76: 813
DOI: 10.1177/0040517506063393

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 Textile Research Journal Article

Reducing Automotive Interior Noise

with Natural Fiber Nonwoven Floor Covering Systems
D. V. Parikh1 1
Abstract Eliminating unwanted noise in passen- Southern Regional Research Center, USDA-ARS,
ger compartments of vehicles is important to New Orleans, LA, U.S.A.
automobile manufacturers. The ability to reduce
noise inside the vehicle enhances the perceived Y. Chen and L. Sun
value of the vehicle to the consumer, and offers a School of Human Ecology, Louisiana State University
competitive advantage to the manufacturer. Sev- Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, LA, U.S.A.
eral methods are presently employed to reduce
noise and its sources, one of which uses sound-
absorbing materials attached to various compo-
nents such as floor-coverings, package trays, door
panels, headliners and trunk liners. Natural fibers
are noise-absorbing materials that are renewable
and biodegradable, making them an effective
choice for the automobile industry. Floor cover-
ings using natural fibers (kenaf, jute, waste cotton,
and flax) in blends with polypropylene (PP) and
polyester (PET) were developed as carded needle-
punched nonwovens. The acoustical absorption
coefficients of these floor coverings, and of floor
coverings in combination with an underpad
(either a rebonded polyurethane foam, or a soft
cotton nonwoven) were evaluated by ASTM E–
1050 in the frequency range of 100 to 3200 Hz. By
stacking an underpad and a floor covering
together, a floor covering system was created. The
measurements demonstrated that each of the nat-
ural fiber-based nonwoven floor coverings con-
tributed to noise reduction, e.g., coefficients =
0.54–0.81 at 3.2 kHz. Noise was significantly
reduced with a floor covering system using either
of the underpads. The most reduction occurred
with a polyurethane pad; for example, for kenaf
floor covering C20-1 the coefficients at 3.2 kHz
were: 1.0 with polyurethane versus 0.81 with cot-
ton pad.

Key words natural fiber nonwovens, environ-

mentally benign, biodegradable, floor covering,
underpad, auto interiors, acoustical absorption
coefficient

1
Corresponding author: e-mail: parikh@srrc.ars.usda.gov

Textile Research Journal Vol 76(11): 813–820 DOI: 10.1177/0040517506063393 www.trj.sagepub.com © 2006 SAGE Publications
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TRJ 814 Textile Research Journal 76(11)

Countries all over the world are anticipating the produc-
tion of more vehicles to meet expected new markets for
automobiles (Table 1). It is predicted that over the next 5
years, China and India will lead the growth, albeit from a
relatively low base, and the U.S. market will advance at a
much slower pace [1]. With each vehicle requiring 14.6 to
20.0 m2 of nonwovens for automotive interiors [2], one can
visualize the demand for such nonwoven composites. The
use of nonwovens is increasing because of their cost-to-
performance ratios and their versatility. Nonwovens can be
made in a wide variety of densities and forms that offer
sound and heat insulation as well as aesthetically pleasing
properties [3]. Today, exciting developments are taking
place to manufacture environmentally benign nonwovens
for auto interior [4–8]. A large variety of carpet-type non-
woven materials is seen in floor coverings, luggage areas,
and rear shelves in today’s passenger cars. Acoustically, the
floor covering system blocks road noise filtering from out-
side to inside of the car [9].
Sound is propagated through the air (airborne sound),
and by vibrations of the car body (structural sound). Air-
borne “noise” comes largely from the engine, from tires
and road, and traffic on the road. Both airborne and struc-
tural noise should be controlled to significantly reduce
noise in the passenger compartment. In the science of
acoustical control, two classes of acoustical treatments are
used to address airborne noise, namely barriers and
absorbers. Likewise, two classes of acoustical treatments
are used to address structure-borne noise, namely isolators
and dampers. The basis of the present study was the con-
trol of airborne noise and so the primary focus was on
absorbers and barriers.
Table 1 Projected annual sales for cars globally.
No. of Cars (million)
USA
2005 17.048
2010 17.796
China
2005 5.022
2010 7.312
Brazil
2005 1.564
2010 1.937
India
2005 1.353
2010 2.373
South Korea
2005 1.240
2010 1.693
From: National Geographic, February 2005
Absorbers
Absorbers are typically graded on the basis of their ability
to dissipate sound energy. Their performance is deter-
mined by their absorption coefficient at various sound fre-
quencies or octave bands. A product may have a 0.50
absorption coefficient at 1000 Hz 1/3 octave band, for
instance. This means that 50% of the energy incident on
the sample was absorbed by the sample at that frequency
band.
Barriers
Barriers are typically graded using a transmission loss (TL)
test. In a TL test the sound pressure level (SPL) is meas-
ured in a reverberant chamber and in an adjoining cham-
ber while the material being tested is mounted in an
opening in the wall separating the two chambers. The
materials are graded by the difference in the SPL between
the two adjacent chambers. A product may have a TL of 30
dB, which means that the overall SPL in the source room is
30 dB greater than in the receiver room. Of course, by def-
inition, barriers do not absorb an appreciative amount of
the energy that is incident on their surface, they instead
reflect it away (back into the reverberant chamber).
In the real world problems generally arise with both
barriers and absorbers working in concert. An engine com-
partment without any absorbers will have a higher SPL
than the same engine and engine compartment with
absorbers. In the passenger compartment the SPL would
be lower in the case in which the engine compartment had
absorption, even without any passenger compartment
absorption.
Nonwoven Floor Covering System
For a product to be a good “carpet system” the system
needs to be a reasonable barrier (i.e. have good TL proper-
ties) to keep the noise under the vehicle from passing
through the floor covering system and into the driving
compartment. In addition it needs to effectively absorb
sound that manages to get into the driving compartment
(regardless of how it got inside). So in addition to a good
TL, it also needs to have good absorption. The sheet metal
that forms the floor of the vehicle acts as a barrier, but
there may also be a continuous impermeable liner under
the carpet to further improve the TL performance. Then,
on top of the barriers a floor covering that is an excellent
absorber to dissipate the sound energy in the passenger
compartment is also required.
Automotive manufacturers emphasize the use of effi-
cient sound-absorptive materials in vehicles to reduce
unwanted noise. The existing sound-absorptive materials
are generally made of synthetic fibers, which are not biode-
gradable. At the end of vehicle’s life, most of auto interior

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 Reducing Automotive Interior Noise with Natural Fiber Nonwoven Floor Covering Systems D. V. Parikh et al.
Table 2 Natural fiber based nonwoven composites produced by carding and needlepunching.
Sample Material
C20-1 Kenaf/PET/PP on scrim
C30-1 Kenaf/PET/PP on scrim
C30-2 Jute/PET/PP on scrim
C30-3 Cotton/PET/PP on scrim
C30-4 PET/PET/PP on scrim
materials usually end up in landfills. As the cost of landfill is
escalating, recycling efforts have been increasing. We have
developed nonwoven floor coverings from low cost, biode-
gradable, environmentally benign natural fibers (kenaf,
jute, cotton and flax) in blends with polypropylene (PP)
and polyester (PET) as potential sound-absorbing materi-
als (Table 2). They were test evaluated for their ability to
absorb sound energy, used either alone or in combination
with (a) a soft cotton underpad, or (b) a rebonded PU
underpad, by the standard test method ASTM E–1050–98.
A floor covering system was created by stacking an under-
pad and a floor covering together. Both the underpads
were also individually evaluated for their ability to absorb
sound energy.
Experimental
Floor coverings of blends containing kenaf, jute, or cotton
with PET and PP in weight ratios of 35/35/30, along with
nonwovens of PET and PP in a weight ratio of 70/30 (e.g.
all-synthetic floor covering, C30-4) were produced by card-
ing, followed by needlepunching. The carded webs were
needlepunched four times on spunbonded polyester scrim
to produce automotive nonwoven floor coverings with tar-
get weights of 20 and 30 oz/yd2 (Table 2). The fabric identi-
fication contains target weight of composite (C) followed
by a dash and a number 1 through 4 (1 refers to kenaf, 2 to
jute, 3 to cotton and 4 to PET). For example, C20-1 refers
to kenaf nonwoven composite of 20 oz/yd2. The nee-
dlepunching technology was chosen to produce the sam-
ples because it is best suited to moldability and good fitting
of the floor coverings. A good fit is essential for acoustical
control.
A carded needlepunched cotton under pad (thickness,
0.185 cm; density, 240 g/m2) was developed at SRRC-
USDA. An underpad of recycled, rebonded polyurethane
foam carpet underlay (thickness, 0.794 cm; density,
965.0 g/m2) was obtained from Leggett and Platt, Cold
Water, MS.
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815 TRJ
Areal density
Blend ratio Thickness (mm)
2
g/m oz/yd2
35:35:30 8.00 730 21.54
35:35:30 10.10 1062 31.31
35:35:30 10.10 1008 29.74
35:35:30 10.00 998 29.44
70:30 10.01 1009 29.75
Acoustical Testing
The two methods most commonly used to measure absorp-
tion performance are ASTM E–1050 “Impedance and
Absorption of Acoustical Materials Using A Tube, Two
Microphones and Digital Frequency Analysis System”
(Normal Incidence Sound Absorption) and ASTM C–423
(Random Incidence Sound Absorption). ASTM E–1050 is
a relatively inexpensive method to determine the absorp-
tion performance of acoustical absorption materials or sys-
tems [10, 11]. Additionally, it only requires the use of a
small sample to characterize the product performance. On
the other hand, the ASTM C–423 requires a large (hun-
dreds of square feet of volume) reverberant chamber and a
relatively large sample size (72 ft2). This method is consid-
ered more representative of real world absorption per-
formance, as usually sound does not fall on the surface of
an absorber only at perpendicular angles. Because a large
sample requirement sometimes is a problem, acoustical
reverberation absorption testing may be carried out in the
Alpha Cabin test equipment of Rieter-Automotive. The
Alpha Cabin uses a smaller sample with a maximum size of
1.2 m2 (10.9 ft2). ASTM E–1050 was used in the present
evaluation of our floor coverings.
The ability of a nonwoven material to absorb unwanted
noise is based on dissipation of the sound wave energy
upon passing through the material and being directed by
the fibers, and also on conversion of some of the energy
into heat. The amount of original energy less the remain-
ing unabsorbed energy compared to the original energy
leads to the measurement referred to as the absorption
coefficient. This coefficient is often used to rank the order
of different composite materials that reduce the noise level
in a vehicle. An impedance tube was used with a sound
source (loudspeaker) connected to one end, and the test
sample mounted to the other end. The loudspeaker gener-
ates broadband random sound waves. Sound waves propa-
gate as plane waves in the tube, hit the sample, get partially
absorbed and subsequently reflect. We used a B & K meas-
uring instrument (ASTM E–1050–98) with a medium
measurement tube, to determine the acoustic properties of
test samples (diameter, 6.35 cm) in the frequency range of
100 to 3200 Hz [11]. The test method used an impedance
tube, dual microphones and a digital frequency analysis
system, for the determination of normal incidence sound,
TRJ 816 Textile Research Journal 76(11)
Figure 1 The two-microphone impedance tube for ASTM
E–1050: Absorption testing.
the absorption coefficient, and normal specific acoustic
impedance ratios of materials (Figure 1). These tools cre-
ate a system that tests a sound-absorptive material, proc-
esses the results, and reports the results in a graph of the
absorption coefficient at various frequencies.
Results and Discussion
A floor covering (nearly 3.5 m2) provides the largest sur-
face area (nearly 40% of the total surface) in an automo-
Figure 2 Comparison of the absorption coefficients of (a) C20-1 floor covering, (b) C20-1 with a cotton underpad, and (c)
C20-1 with a polyurethane underpad at various frequencies.
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bile for soundproofing. Sound absorption by floor covering
is important, for it covers those parts of the car body that
have the highest sound emission [12].
It is easy to interpret the absorption coefficient values
by the ASTM E–1050 measurements: a coefficient of 0.5
means only 50% of the incident sound waves are absorbed
by the noise-absorbing material whereas all of the sound
waves are absorbed when the coefficient reaches a value of
1.0.
Figure 2 shows the absorption coefficients of a 20 oz/yd2
carded needlepunched kenaf floor covering at various fre-
quencies, and the same floor covering in combination with
an underpad of either needlepunched cotton or rebonded
polyurethane (PU). At 3200 Hz, the coefficient was only
0.54 for the floor covering whereas with the PU underpad
the coefficient reached a value of 1.0, and with cotton
underpad the coefficient was 0.81. Both underpads signifi-
cantly enhance sound absorption of the floor covering, and
thus significantly reduce unwanted noise. Of the two under-
pads studied, the PU underpad, having higher thickness
and density, is more effective in reducing noise. The
absorption coefficients of 30 oz/yd2 natural fiber compos-
ites C30-1, C30-2, and C30-3 are shown respectively in
Figures 3–5. The absorption coefficients of these floor cov-
erings in combination with underpads are also shown in
these figures. With PU underpad, the coefficients were in
the range of 0.98–0.79 at 3.2 kHz; and with a cotton under-
 Reducing Automotive Interior Noise with Natural Fiber Nonwoven Floor Covering Systems D. V. Parikh et al. 817 TRJ

Figure 3 Comparison of the absorption coefficients of (a) C30-1 floor covering, (b) C30-1 with a cotton underpad, and (c)
C30-1 with a polyurethane underpad at various frequencies.

Figure 4 Comparison of the absorption coefficients of (a) C30-2 floor covering, (b) C30-2 with a cotton underpad, and (c)
C30-2 with a polyurethane underpad at various frequencies.

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TRJ 818 Textile Research Journal 76(11)

Figure 5 Comparison of the absorption coefficients of (a) C30-3 floor covering, (b) C30-3 with a cotton underpad, and (c)
C30-3 with a polyurethane underpad.

Figure 6 Comparison of the absorption coefficients of (a) C30-4 floor covering, (b) C30-4 with a cotton underpad, and (c)
C30-4 with a polyurethane underpad at various frequencies.

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 Reducing Automotive Interior Noise with Natural Fiber Nonwoven Floor Covering Systems D. V. Parikh et al.
Figure 7 Comparison of the absorption coefficients of (a) cotton underpad and (b) polyurethane underpad at various fre-
quencies.
pad, the coefficients were 0.97–0.87 at 3.2 kHz. These data
explain why the natural fiber floor covering systems can be
effective as sound proofing systems. Furthermore, the
sound absorption of these systems compared well with that
of the synthetic fiber system (Figure 6).
In each of the cases, there was a significant improve-
ment in the absorption coefficient with the use of an under-
pad. The PU underpad has been most effective in reducing
noise (Figure 7). As the thickness and density of underpads
(PU foam and Cotton) were so much different, it would
have been informative if a cotton underpad of thickness
and density similar to the PU underpad had been available.
It would probably have produced acoustical absorption sim-
ilar to that of the PU underpad. Once only luxury cars had a
noise insulation pad under the carpet but in many cases this
is now becoming a standard practice [4].
Summary
Environmental issues have been responsible for the
growth of natural fiber-based interiors over the past 5
years, and a further gain in momentum appears to be
underway in both Europe and North America. The auto-
motive materials market exhibits high growth potential
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819 TRJ
because of the requirements for increased driving comfort
and the search for alternative environmentally benign
materials.
By using the ASTM E–1050 Standard Test Method for
Impedance and Absorption of Acoustical Materials Using
A Tube, and Dual Microphones, it was shown that natural
fiber-based nonwoven composites (floor coverings) can be
produced that have sound-absorbing properties suitable
for use as noise-reducing components in automobiles. The
floor covering systems, comprised of these nonwoven com-
posites and an underlay of rebonded polyurethane, provide
efficient noise absorption, reducing the overall sound level,
for quiet passenger compartments.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Mr James W. Hermodson, Thinsulate
Acoustic Insulation – Technical Service, 3M Company for
his helpful insights on the subject, to Dr Alfred French,
SRRC for helpful discussions, and to Mr Steve Gilder,
Technical Director, Urethane Products Division, Legget
and Platt, Inc. for his generosity in providing the rebonded
polyurethane underlay.
TRJ 820 Textile Research Journal 76(11)

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