Experimental and numerical analysis of the sound insulation property of wood plastic composites (WPCs) filled with precipitated CaCO₃

Abstract

The sound transmission loss (STL) of precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC)-filled wood plastic composite (WPC) was studied using a numerical analysis method based on the mass law and sound scattering theory. Several physical models for explaining sound wave transmission in WPC were established, and relevant STL equations were derived. The STL of WPC filled with different PCC weight ratios was analyzed using these models. The results showed that the STL of WPC increased with an increase in sound frequency and PCC weight ratio. The improvement of sound insulation was attributed to the mass increase, sound scattering enhancement by the fillers, and PCC weight ratio. The predicted results showed similar trends to the experimental data under the same processing conditions. It was concluded that the proposed models can be used to analyze the STL of filled WPC. Larger inorganic particle size led to higher STL, but its effect was not obvious at lower frequency ranges. Predicted STL increased with increased weight ratio of wood for the whole frequency range tested.