The energy consumption in the building sector can reach up to 40% of the total energy demand of an industrial country. For this reason, green building strategies can be extremely effective as far as fossil fuels savings and greenhouse gases reduction. Sustainable materials can play an important role, since less energy is generally required for their production than the one needed for conventional materials. In the last years many new materials for noise control have been studied and developed as alternatives to the traditional ones (glass or rock wool); these materials are either natural (cotton, cellulose, hemp, wool, clay, etc) or made from recycled materials (rubber, plastic, carpet, cork, etc.). Their importance is proven by the fact that in Europe many Municipalities have introduced into Building Regulations specific recommendations to improve their use in new constructions, allowing a reduction of construction taxes or other benefits. The paper presents an updated survey of the characteristics and the acoustical properties of sustainable materials for noise control and in particular sound absorption coefficient, airborne and impact sound insulation data, as well as an analysis of the procedures to asses the sustainability of these materials (LCA, Ecoinvent, Ecoprofiles).
Survey on the acoustical properties of new sustainable materials for noise control
ASDRUBALI, Francesco
2006
Abstract
The energy consumption in the building sector can reach up to 40% of the total energy demand of an industrial country. For this reason, green building strategies can be extremely effective as far as fossil fuels savings and greenhouse gases reduction. Sustainable materials can play an important role, since less energy is generally required for their production than the one needed for conventional materials. In the last years many new materials for noise control have been studied and developed as alternatives to the traditional ones (glass or rock wool); these materials are either natural (cotton, cellulose, hemp, wool, clay, etc) or made from recycled materials (rubber, plastic, carpet, cork, etc.). Their importance is proven by the fact that in Europe many Municipalities have introduced into Building Regulations specific recommendations to improve their use in new constructions, allowing a reduction of construction taxes or other benefits. The paper presents an updated survey of the characteristics and the acoustical properties of sustainable materials for noise control and in particular sound absorption coefficient, airborne and impact sound insulation data, as well as an analysis of the procedures to asses the sustainability of these materials (LCA, Ecoinvent, Ecoprofiles).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
