Abstract
The combination of low price, ease of manufacturing and waterproofing characteristics has placed polyester resin as a potential sound absorbent material. Previous studies showed that adding filler material to the blending may increase the acoustics properties of a sound absorbent material. This study aims to investigate the potential of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) to be employed as a filler to improve the acoustic properties of the sound absorber made of polyester resin. Two important acoustic parameters were carefully assessed; absorption coefficient and acoustic impedance. The results showed that the sound absorption performance increased significantly at low and medium frequencies in the presence of NaHCO3 filler in polyester resin. Meanwhile, the use of a back cavity on the absorbent material reduced the sound absorption performance of materials at low and medium frequencies. This suggests that sound absorber made of polyester with sodium bicarbonate filler may be used as an alternative for sound absorber materials.