Sound absorbing materials do not absorb all frequencies to the same extent.
In the acoustical design of a room it is important to know the whole absorption spectrum of the
sound absorbing material to be used.
For these materials, a general classification is used,
based on the sound absorption coefficient (αw).
This lets us compare the various materials considered.
However to define the quality of a sound absorbing material on the basis
of a single parameter is to over-simplify; actually, materials with the
same sound absorption coefficient αw can have completely different absorption spectra.
The graph shows the sound absorption coefficients for different materials in relation to various frequencies:
Why use noise absorbing coverings? |