The normal incidence sound absorption of the thin band yarn woven fabric with kapok fiber

• A new BYW material with kapok fiber was prepared. • The content of kapok fiber in the thin BYW material can reach to 80%. • Sound absorption of BYW material is better than that of nonwoven fabric material. • Sound absorption of BYW material is better than that of the normal plain woven fabric material. In order to increase kapok fiber content to improve the sound absorption of woven fabric materials with kapok fiber, the kapok fiber woven fabric materials with a new band yarn structure have been fabricated in this paper. The mass percent of kapok fiber in the band yarn woven fabric (BYW) materials can reach to 80%. Comparisons of sound absorption coefficients of BYW with different fiber, the normal plain woven fabrics and nonwoven have been made. The effects of kapok fiber content, woven weave, warp density and band yarn diameter on sound absorption of BYW materials have been studied. It is shown that BYW with kapok fiber have the better sound absorption in the frequency range of 125–1600 Hz than BYW with cotton or hollow polyester fiber. The higher kapok fiber content, the better sound absorption of BYW owing to the large lumen structure filled with air of kapok fiber. The smaller warp density or the larger band yarn diameter, the higher the kapok fiber content as a result of the more number of band yarn per unit length of fabric, yields the better sound absorption of BYW. In addition, BYW with plain weave has the better sound absorption than BYW with twill or honeycomb weave in the frequency range of 1250–1600 Hz, and the phenomenon is opposite in the frequency range of 400–1250 Hz owing to the thinner thickness of material.