Modeling the acoustic absorption behaviour of polylactide open cell foams with bimodal structure for high acoustic absorption

Through this research, highly porous open cell foams were fabricated with Polylactide (PLA) and Polyethylene glycol (PEG) using compression molding combined with particulate leaching technique. Salt and water soluble polymer were used as the particulates. The pore size of the foam structure is controlled by the particulates size and higher interconnectivity is achieved by the co-continuous blending morphology of PLA matrix with water-soluble PEG. As a result of employing water soluble polymer into PLA foams, a bimodal cell structure was fabricated. Both PLA and PEG are fully bio-based polymers derived from renewable resources. Therefore, the resulting acoustic foams are benign and environmentally friendly. As a result of the secondary porous structure formed into cell walls by the water soluble polymer, the overall absorption of fabricated PLA foams was increased to above 90% while the average absorption of the foams remained unchanged. Fabricated foams were characterized for cellular, acoustic and mechan...