Journal of Natural Fibers

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wjnf20

Effect of Thickness and Infill Density on Acoustic

Performance of 3D Printed Panels made of Natural
Fiber Reinforced Composites

Vignesh Sekar, Se Yong Eh Noum, Sivakumar Sivanesan, Azma Putra,

Desmond Daniel Chin Vui Sheng & Dg Hafizah Kassim

To cite this article: Vignesh Sekar, Se Yong Eh Noum, Sivakumar Sivanesan, Azma Putra,
Desmond Daniel Chin Vui Sheng & Dg Hafizah Kassim (2021): Effect of Thickness and Infill
Density on Acoustic Performance of 3D Printed Panels made of Natural Fiber Reinforced
Composites, Journal of Natural Fibers, DOI: 10.1080/15440478.2021.1944426

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15440478.2021.1944426

Published online: 05 Jul 2021.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 68

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=wjnf20
JOURNAL OF NATURAL FIBERS
https://doi.org/10.1080/15440478.2021.1944426

Effect of Thickness and Infill Density on Acoustic Performance of 3D

Printed Panels made of Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites
Vignesh Sekar a, Se Yong Eh Noum a, Sivakumar Sivanesan a, Azma Putra b
,
Desmond Daniel Chin Vui Sheng c, and Dg Hafizah Kassim d
a
School of Computer Science and Engineering, Taylor’s University, No. 1, Jalan Taylors, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor,
Malaysia; bCentre for Advanced Research on Energy, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), Hang Tuah Jaya,
76100, Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia; cNoise, Vibration & Acoustics (NOVIA) Focus Group, Faculty of Mechanical
and Manufacturing Engineering (FKMP), Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), 86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat,
Johor, Malaysia; dFakulti Kejuruteraan Mekanikal, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), Hang Tuah Jaya, 76100,
Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia

ABSTRACT 关键词
Additive manufacturing (AM) of Natural Fiber-Reinforced Composites 增材制造; 熔融沉积模型;
through Fused Deposition Modeling is receiving much attention in recent 打印生物降解隔音板; 天
years. AM is very appealing for complex shape structures that can be incon­ 然纤维增强复合材料; 吸
venient to produce by other methods. In this study, the acoustic panel made 声; 填充密度
from polylactic acid reinforced with wood fiber composite was 3D printed by KEYWORDS
varying its thickness and infill density. The sound absorption coefficient was Additive manufacturing;
measured using an impedance tube. The thin panel with back air gap was fused deposition modeling;
found to absorb sound at mid-frequency range resembling the Helmholtz 3D printed biodegradable
resonator. The absorption performance for the thick panel can be controlled acoustic panel; natural fiber-
by controlling the infill density of the panel. Customizing the acoustic reinforced composites;
sound absorption; infill
absorption is therefore possible for panels from biodegradable materials by
density
AM.
摘要
近年来, 通过熔融沉积模型（FDM）实现天然纤维增强复合材料（NFRC）
的增材制造（AM）受到了广泛关注. AM对于不方便用其他方法生产的复
杂形状结构非常有吸引力. 本研究以聚乳酸（PLA）为基材, 以木纤维复合
材料为增强材料, 藉由改变其厚度及填充密度, 制备出具有三维效果的吸声
板. 用阻抗管测量吸声系数. 研究发现, 带有后气隙的薄板在中频范围内吸
收声音, 类似于亥姆霍兹谐振器. 厚板的吸声性能可以通过控制填充密度来
控制. 因此, 通过添加制造, 定制可生物降解材料制成的面板的吸声性能是
可能的.

Introduction
Noise, originating from one source or a combination of different sources, may range from low to high
frequency. High-frequency noise waves possess shorter wavelengths, whereas low-frequency noise
waves have a longer wavelength making it hard to be controlled. These noises raise concerns among
people and have to be addressed appropriately (Liu et al. 2015). Acoustic absorbing panels have been
used to manage these noises as they allow the sound waves to oscillate, collide, and eventually dissipate
into heat energy (Berardi and Iannace 2015). Figure 1 shows the schematic representation of an
acoustic panel backed by a rigid wall with an air gap in between.
Mineral and synthetic fiber-based acoustic panels are used in the current trend, but they exhibit
severe environmental issues (Saravanan and Prakash 2019). Natural fibers therefore become the
materials that are of interest as green acoustic absorbers (Lim et al. 2018; Taban et al. 2019).

CONTACT vignesh sekar [email protected]

© 2021 Taylor & Francis
2 V. SEKAR ET AL.

Incident Acoustic Waves Acoustic Panel Rigid Wall

Air Gap

Thickness

Figure 1. Schematic representation of an acoustic panel backed by a rigid wall with an air gap in between.

Polylactic acid (PLA) is also a biodegradable polymer that can be incorporated with natural fibers to
produce an environmentally friendly acoustic panel. This can be an option to replace the synthetic
fiber-based acoustic panels. These Natural Fiber-Reinforced Composites (NFRC) are less dense and
highly porous compared to pure polymers (Chin, Yahya, and Din 2020). Apart from that, a few
researchers found that NFRC possessed high specific strength (Le Duigou et al. 2020; Stoof, Pickering,
and Zhang 2017). These properties inspired the preference of NFRC over other materials in this
research. There are wide varieties of natural fibers available, and few have already made their presence
into the field of additive manufacturing (AM) (Flores et al. 2020). Although many acoustic applica­
tions implemented NFRC, acousticians are still unsatisfied with the acoustic absorption of NFRC
throughout the absorption spectrum. Thickness and density are important factors that can influence
the sound absorption of the acoustic panels. It is recommended to seek a more open and highly porous
structure for effective absorption (Gokulkumar et al. 2019). While the absorption of the low-frequency
sound depends on the thickness of the structure (Hamdan et al. 2018), for mid- to high-frequency
waves, there will be an increase in acoustic absorption with an increase in the density. The larger the
density, the higher the number of fibers per unit area. This will cause an increase in tortuosity
(complication of sound path), which will lead to more energy loss (Chin et al. 2018). NFRC have
been used for acoustic applications by various techniques and methodologies; however, applying the
NFRC into the acoustic application through AM has not been addressed before.
The AM method is one of the techniques that has been found to be beneficial in producing complex
structures in a variety of applications. There are numerous 3D printing technologies available, and
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is the most convenient and common method used for printing
fiber-reinforced composites (Wang et al. 2017). PLA-based natural fiber composites by FDM technol­
ogy can be applied for acoustic application since it can provide structures with different parameters
that can absorb sound at various spectrums. The AM can be considered as an essential tool in
producing acoustic absorbers due to its versatility in tuning the fabrication parameters to implore
the ability to absorb sound at targeted or specific frequency spectrums (Berardi 2017). For example,
AM can be used to fabricate an absorber with complicated sound path, but with controlled path length
according to the design to tune the frequency of absorption.
The AM process involves several processing parameters such as melting temperature, hot plate
temperature, printing speed, and structural parameters. Structural parameters mentioned include
 JOURNAL OF NATURAL FIBERS 3

layer thickness, infill pattern, infill density, and number of layers, and printing angle can influence the
acoustic absorption of panels produced by AM (Mazzanti, Malagutti, and Mollica 2019).
Infill density of the printed structure is defined as the amount of filament used in printing the
structure. It is usually measured in percentage and varies from 10% to 100%. Printed structures with
10% infill density will be hollow, and as the material consumption increases, its infill density increases.
Printed structures with 100% infill density are more solid. The difference in infill density has shown to
have a significant effect on the mechanical properties of the printed structures. Printed structures with
a higher percentage of infill density exhibit higher mechanical strengths since it possesses fewer
cavities and are more complex (Rodríguez-Panes, Claver, and Camacho 2018). Sekar et al. stated
that this difference in infill densities might affect the acoustic properties of the printed structures
(Sekar et al. 2019). Deepak et al. did similar research whereby the sound absorption performance of
acoustic panel made from Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) through the means of 3D printing
method was significantly affected by the difference of infill density, where samples with different infill
density show different peak sound absorption performance at different frequencies (Deepak et al.
2019). However, petroleum-based polymers like ABS are likely non-biodegradable and have adverse
effect on the environment. This issue raises concern on sustainability during the process of developing
a product. PLA is a kind of polymer that has minimal to no impact on the environment due to its
sustainable properties (Fouladi et al. 2020). Hence, this work aims at developing an acoustic panel
made from NFRC through the means of 3D printing method. This research also aims at showing that
the infill density can be considered as an essential factor in assessing the sound absorption perfor­
mance of 3D printed acoustic panel.

Experimental
Materials
Commercial Woodfill filament (PLA reinforced with 30 wt.% of wood fibers) from Colorfabb was used
in this research. The standard diameter of the woodfill filament was 1.75 ± 0.05 mm.

Methodology
Woodfill filament was 3D printed using Raise 3D N2 Plus printer that works on FDM. The printing
temperature was 210°C at a rate of 70 mm/s. Panels were modeled using Solidworks and 3D printed
with varying thickness and infill densities. The 3D printed samples’ thickness was 1.35, 3, 4, and 5 mm,
respectively. The difference of infill densities was seen only at a thickness of 5 mm for the samples.
Hence with a thickness of 5 mm, panels were 3D printed by differing the infill densities. The 3D
printed samples’ infill densities were 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%, respectively. The pattern selected
for printing was the default grid type. Figure 2 shows the internal structure of the 3D printed acoustic
panel with different infill densities.

Figure 2. Internal structure of the 3D printed acoustic panel with different infill densities (100%, 80%, 60%, 40%, and 20%) (Left to
Right).
4 V. SEKAR ET AL.

Table 1. Detailed specification of the 3D printed panels.

Sample ID Thickness Infill Air gap (mm) Mass Density
(mm) density (%) (g) (g/cm3)
A 1.35 100 5 1.16 0.98
B 3.00 100 5 2.62 0.99
C 4.00 100 5 3.50 0.98
D 5.00 100 5 4.38 0.98
E 5.00 80 5 3.93 0.89
F 5.00 60 5 3.51 0.79
G 5.00 40 5 3.07 0.70
H 5.00 20 5 2.65 0.60

Figure 3. Impedance tube used in this research.

The layers showing different infill densities were sandwiched between the commonly printed layers.
The panel’s weight was measured after 3D printed, and its density was calculated by equating the
obtained mass to the panel’s volume. Table 1 shows the specifications of the 3D printed panels.

Acoustical Testing
The sound absorption coefficient (SAC) of the 3D printed panels was obtained by a two-microphone
impedance tube method as per ISO 10534–2 standard. Figure 3 shows the impedance tube used for
measuring the acoustic absorption of the 3D printed panels in this research. The outer diameter and
inner diameter of the tube are 55 mm and 33.4 mm, respectively.
Figure 4 shows the design and the 3D printed sample during testing.
The measurement of panel’s acoustic absorption was conducted with an air gap of 5 mm thickness.
Results were presented within the frequency range of 500 Hz to 4.5 kHz. In this research, frequencies
ranging from 500 Hz to 2 kHz are denoted as low- to mid-frequency spectrum, while frequencies
ranging from 2 kHz to 4.5 kHz denoted as high-frequency spectrum. The measurement was conducted
three times for a single sample to ensure the repeatability of the results, and the variability was negligible.
 JOURNAL OF NATURAL FIBERS 5

Figure 4. A) Design of an acoustic panel, b) 3D printed sample.

Results and Discussion

Effect of Thickness
Figure 5 shows the effect of varying thicknesses on the acoustic absorption of 3D printed panels. The
thin Sample A with 1.35 mm thickness shows SAC of more than 0.5 at 1.5–2 kHz, which follows the
mechanism of Helmholtz resonator due to the presence of micro holes in the sample and the presence
of the back air gap. Prasetiyo et al. presented a similar phenomenon for a thin fabric layer (Prasetiyo
et al. 2020). The absorption happened due to the friction between the air and the holes’ inner surface

Figure 5. Effect of varying thicknesses on acoustic absorption of 3D printed panels at an air gap of 5 mm.
6 V. SEKAR ET AL.

(resistive part) and the air’s inertial motion inside the hole (reactive part). The back air layer acts as the
spring.
For the other thicker samples B, C, and D, the acoustic absorption deteriorates around 1.5 kHz to
2 kHz, and similar trend of absorption shifts at higher frequency, but with lower level than that of
Sample A.
As the sample thickness increases, its acoustic absorption decreases due to low- to mid-frequency
waves finding it harder to penetrate through the thicker panels. If the thickness is too large, the air in
the voids becomes difficult to move; consequently, there will effectively be no friction. The 3D printed
panel with a thickness of 1.35 mm shows a maximum SAC of 0.8 at 1.7 kHz and the panel with
a thickness of 5 mm shows a maximum SAC of 0.4 at 4 kHz.

Effect of an Air Gap Thickness

Figure 6 shows the effect of varying air gap thickness on the acoustic absorption. As expected, it can be
observed from Figure 6 that the peaks of acoustic absorption shift toward the low-frequency spectrum
with increased SAC. The increased air gap behind the panel provides enough space for the low- to
mid-frequency wave to oscillate and lose its energy. 3D printed panel with a thickness of 1.35 mm and
an air gap of 15 mm shows the maximum SAC of 0.95 at 1450 Hz.
From the above discussion, acoustic panels can perform better at the low-frequency spectrum by
introducing an air gap behind the panel. However, for thicker panels, providing an air gap behind the
panel along with the panel itself consumes a lot of space.

Figure 6. Effect of varying air gap thickness on acoustic absorption of a 1.35 mm thick 3D printed panel.
 JOURNAL OF NATURAL FIBERS 7

Figure 7. Effect of varying infill densities on acoustic absorption of a 5 mm thick 3D printed panel at an air gap of 5 mm.

Effect of Infill Density

This section presents a modification of infill density for the thick sample of 5 mm. Figure 7 shows the
effect of varying infill densities on the acoustic absorption of the 3D printed panels. It can be seen that
decreasing the infill densities changes the location of the peak absorption across the frequency. The 3D
printed panel with the infill density of 80% shows a maximum SAC of 0.5 at 1.5 kHz. Reduction in
density improves the passage of acoustic waves to enter into the structure, and air inside the voids can
now move with ease, which increases the viscous friction, eventually causing the acoustic waves to lose
its energy and, thus, absorbing sound. However by further reducing the density, the performance
decreases at low frequency as the wave propagation becomes too loose to the material. The absorption
takes effect on the shorter wavelength at higher frequency. To improve the absorption at lower
frequency with the same low density, thicker panel is required.
This finding provides a possible way to shift the peak of absorption by carefully modifying the infill
density. As seen in Figure 7, a reduction from 80% to 60% significantly increases the peak frequency
from 1.5 kHz to 3.7 kHz. If the targeted absorption frequency is around 2–3 kHz, then the sample must
be constructed with greater infill density than 60%.

Conclusion
Acoustic panels made of PLA reinforced with wood fiber composites had been successfully 3D
printed. The panels were 3D printed with varying thicknesses and infill densities, and the sound
absorption was measured by using a two-microphone impedance tube method. It was found that for
a thin panel (1.35 mm thick) with an air gap, the mechanism of absorption is similar to a Helmholtz
resonator providing high peak of absorption with narrow frequency band. The thicker panel
8 V. SEKAR ET AL.

(5 mm) can be treated by reducing the infill density to provide porosity in the panel. This, however,
must be controlled as the density is too low; the absorption at low-mid frequency can deteriorate.
There is a potential to extend this study by constructing a complicated path in the back air layer to
add more sound energy loss. The AM can also be used to fabricate a sound absorber with tune
mass-stiffness system where the sound is absorbed through vibrating mechanism. Accuracy of the
AM process is therefore required to produce the precise parameters of mass and stiffness elements
in the structure.

Acknowledgments
The author is thankful to the Taylor’s University for funding scholarship during this research work. An acoustic
impedance tube was used in collaboration with Universiti Teknikal Malaysia, Melaka.

Declaration of conflicting interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Funding
This work was partially sponsored by Taylor’s University Flagship Research Grant TUFR/2017/001/05.

ORCID
Vignesh Sekar http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2195-3217
Se Yong Eh Noum http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0398-2399
Sivakumar Sivanesan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4250-5475
Azma Putra http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6023-2493
Desmond Daniel Chin Vui Sheng http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9666-7728
Dg Hafizah Kassim http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7579-1511

References
Berardi, U. 2017. DESTRUCTIVE INTERFERENCES CREATED USING ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING. Canadian
Acoustics 45 (3):44–45.
Berardi, U., and G. Iannace. 2015. Acoustic characterization of natural fibers for sound absorption applications. Building
and Environment 94:840–52. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.05.029.
Chin, D., M. N. B. Yahya, and N. B. C. Din. 2020. Sound Absorption of Microperforated Panel Made from Coconut Fiber
and Polylactic Acid Composite. Journal of Natural Fiber. doi:10.1080/15440478.2020.1821290.
Chin, D. D. V. S., M. N. B. Yahya, N. B. C. Din, and P. Ong. 2018. Acoustic properties of biodegradable composite
micro-perforated panel (BC-MPP) made from kenaf fibre and polylactic acid (PLA). Applied Acoustics
138 (2018):179–87. doi:10.1016/j.apacoust.2018.04.009.
Deepak, A., M. S. Ranjan, B. Venkatesham, and S. Suryakumar. 2019. Acoustic Characterization of Additive
Manufactured Layered Porous Materials. INTER-NOISE and NOISE-CON Congress and Conference Proceedings,
InterNoise19, Madrid, Spain, Institute of Noise Control Engineering, pp. 3248–3254(7)
Flores, C. G., C. Velasco-Santos, A. L. Hernandez-Zea, O. Gomez-Guzman, J. M. Yañez-Limon, J. L. Rivera-Armenta,
and A. L. Martinez-Hernandez. 2020. Low Concentrations for Significant Improvements in Thermal and
Thermomechanical Properties of Poly(Lactic Acid)–Keratin Biocomposites Obtained by Extrusion and 3D
Printing. Journal of Natural Fibers 1–14. doi:10.1080/15440478.2020.1788483.
Fouladi, M. H., S. N. Namasivayam, V. Sekar, P. Marappan, H. L. Choo, T. K. Ong, R. Walvekar, and C. Baniotopoulos.
2020. Pretreatment Studies and Characterization of Bio-Degradable and 3d- Printable Filaments from Coconut
Waste. International Journal of Nanoelectronics and Materials 13:137–48.
Gokulkumar, S., P. R. Thyla, L. Prabhu, and S. Sathish. 2019. Measuring Methods of Acoustic Properties and Influence of
Physical Parameters on Natural Fibers: A Review. Journal of Natural Fibers. doi:10.1080/15440478.2019.1598913.
 JOURNAL OF NATURAL FIBERS 9

Hamdan, N. I., M. H. Zainulabidin, M. Z. Kasron, A. E. Ismail, and A. S. Kassim. 2018. Effect of Perforation Size on
Sound Absorption Characteristics of Membrane Absorber. International Journal of Integrated Engineering
10 (4):27–34. doi:10.30880/ijie.2018.10.04.005.
Le Duigou, A., D. Correa, M. Ueda, R. Matsuzaki, and M. Castro. 2020. A review of 3D and 4D printing of natural fibre
biocomposites. Materials & Design 194:108911. doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2020.108911.
Lim, Z. Y., A. Putra, M. J. M. Nor, and M. Y. Yaakob. 2018, June. Sound absorption performance of natural kenaf fibres.
(2017) Applied Acoustics 130:107–14. doi: 10.1016/j.apacoust.2017.09.012.
Liu, X., X. Yan, L. Li, and H. Zhang. 2015. Sound-Absorption Properties of Kapok Fiber Nonwoven Fabrics at Low
Frequency. Journal of Natural Fibers 12 (4):311–22. doi:10.1080/15440478.2014.919891.
Mazzanti, V., L. Malagutti, and F. Mollica. 2019. FDM 3D Printing of Polymers Containing Natural Fillers: A Review of
their Mechanical Properties. Polymers 11 (7):1094. doi:10.3390/polym11071094.
Prasetiyo, I., E. Muqowi, A. Putra, M. Novenbrianty, G. Desendra, and D. R. Adhika. 2020. Modelling sound absorption
of tunable double layer woven fabrics. Applied Acoustics 157:107008. doi:10.1016/j.apacoust.2019.107008.
Rodríguez-Panes, A., J. Claver, and A. M. Camacho. 2018. The Influence of Manufacturing Parameters on the
Mechanical Behaviour of PLA and ABS Pieces Manufactured by FDM: A Comparative Analysis. Materials 11 (8):8.
doi:10.3390/ma11081333.
Saravanan, K., and C. Prakash. 2019. Study of Acoustic Properties of Chicken Feather Fibre (CFF) and Its Hybrid
Composites. Journal of Natural Fibers 1–8. doi:10.1080/15440478.2019.1629560.
Sekar, V., M. H. Fouladi, S. N. Namasivayam, and S. Sivanesan. 2019. “Additive Manufacturing : A Novel Method for
Developing an Acoustic Panel Made of Natural Fiber-Reinforced Composites with Enhanced Mechanical and
Acoustical Properties.” Journal of Engineering Article ID 4546863, 19. doi:10.1155/2019/4546863.
Stoof, D., K. Pickering, and Y. Zhang. 2017. Fused deposition modelling of natural fibre/polylactic acid composites.
Journal of Composites Science 1 (1):8. doi:10.3390/jcs1010008.
Taban, E., A. Khavanina, A. Ohadi, A. Putra, A. J. Jafari, M. Faridan, and A. Soleimanian. 2019. Study on the acoustic
characteristics of natural date palm fi bres : Experimental and theoretical approaches. Building and Environment
161 (July):106274. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.106274.
Wang, X., M. Jiang, Z. Zhou, J. Gou, and D. Hui. 2017. 3D Printing of Polymer Matrix Composites: A Review and
Prospective. Composites Part B: Engineering 110:442–58. doi:10.1016/j.compositesb.2016.11.034.