Modelling of the acoustical properties of hemp particles

This paper focuses on the acoustical properties of mixes of hemp particles. A physical analysis of the experimental data revealed that acoustical dissipation in this material is governed by inter-particle pores in the tested frequency range. The evolution of the acoustical parameters of mixes of hemp particles is studied as a function of density and it was found that these parameters are strongly affected by the parallelepipedal shape of the particles. The relationships existing between these acoustical parameters and basic parameters of the material, such as the apparent density of the mix, the particle apparent density, the characteristic dimension of the particles and their shape factor are investigated. It is shown first that these basic parameters can be directly used to model the acoustical properties of the mixes, then that acoustical data can be very useful to characterize the shape and microstructure of these hemp aggregates. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.