Community awareness of environmental noise has increased and there is a higher expectation for local government to reduce noise levels. In order to solve the noise problem, many engineers develop different types of material for sound absorption. Rubbersoil is one of the developing materials. It is a kind of lightweight geo-material, which incorporates rubber chips derived from scrap rubber tyres and bonded with cementitious material. Fine rubber powder and large rubber chips have their specific characteristics towards sound adsorption. Fine rubber tyre powder undergoes porous absorber mechanism and absorbs high frequency sound, while large and higher proportion of rubber tyre chips provide air gaps and enhance sound absorption at low frequencies. A proper combination of these two types...[ Read more ]

Community awareness of environmental noise has increased and there is a higher expectation for local government to reduce noise levels. In order to solve the noise problem, many engineers develop different types of material for sound absorption. Rubbersoil is one of the developing materials. It is a kind of lightweight geo-material, which incorporates rubber chips derived from scrap rubber tyres and bonded with cementitious material. Fine rubber powder and large rubber chips have their specific characteristics towards sound adsorption. Fine rubber tyre powder undergoes porous absorber mechanism and absorbs high frequency sound, while large and higher proportion of rubber tyre chips provide air gaps and enhance sound absorption at low frequencies. A proper combination of these two types of rubber tyre would give satisfactory sound absorption for noises at a wide range of frequencies. With the potential benefits of rubber powder and rubber chips for sound absorption, Rubbersoil can be developed as an effective noise absorption material. Moreover, high damping property of Rubbersoil allows it to form barrier trenches around vibration sensitive foundations and structures (such as factories for sensitive, precision, and high-tech electronic industries) in order to insulate it from strong ground excitation induced from various dynamic sources. This research involves laboratory testing, panel modeling and possibly field testing in verifying and understanding the vibration and noise absorption characteristics of Rubbersoil.