Textile Research Journal Article

Sound Absorption Behavior of Knitted Spacer Fabrics

Yanping Liu, Hong Hu1
Abstract This paper presents an experimental Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The Hong Kong
investigation on the sound absorption behavior of Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong,
knitted spacer fabrics. Both weft-knitted and warp- China
knitted fabrics were used in the study due to their
different structure features. The weft-knitted spacer
fabric used was composed of two varied plain knit-
ted outer layers and one textured polyester multifil-
ament spacer layer, and it was considered as a
porous sound absorber. The warp-knitted spacer
fabric used was made with mesh structure on the
outer layers and monofilament yarn in the spacer
layer, and it was considered as microperforated
panel sound absorber. The noise absorption coeffi-
cients (NACs) of these two kinds of fabrics under
both single and multilayer forms as well as their
combinations were tested using a two-microphone
impedance measurement tube. The results show
that the fabric surface structure and thickness,
spacer yarn type and their connecting ways, fabric
combinations and their arrangement methods have
significant effects on the sound absorbability. The
results also demonstrate that good sound absorba-
bility could be achieved by using knitted spacer fab-
rics if suitable fabric structures and combinations
are used.

Key words spacer fabric, sound absorption,

thickness, porous material, perforated panel

Introduction frequencies, an adiabatic process takes place when the

sound waves cross through the irregular pores of porous
material [4], which produces heat loss due to friction. How-
Noise has caused a serious environmental problem in our
ever, the process is an isothermal one at low frequencies.
daily life and has become an increasing public health con-
In this case, poroelastic materials absorb sound due to
cern [1]. A variety of ways are available to reduce noise and energy loss caused by heat exchange [5]. In general, poroe-
they can be basically grouped by passive and active medi-
lastic efficiency is limited to high frequencies.
ums [2]. While passive mediums reduce noise by dissemi-
A resonator is another kind of passive medium for noise
nating energy and turning it into heat, active mediums
reduction by transforming the resonator itself into a vibra-
need the application of external energy in the noise reduc- tion. A noise resonator absorbs sound by means of vibra-
ing process [3].
Porous material is a typical passive medium widely used
for sound absorption. Sound absorbability of this kind of
material depends on the sound wave frequency. At high 1
Corresponding author: e-mail: tchuhong@polyu.edu.hk

Textile Research Journal Vol 80(18): 1949–1957 DOI: 10.1177/0040517510373639 © The Author(s), 2010. Reprints and permissions:
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TRJ 1950 Textile Research Journal 80(18)
tion via heat loss due to sound pressure variations.
Perforated panels in combination with air-back cavity and
rigid backing, which are considered as a kind of Helmholtz
resonator, have been used widely in various noise control
applications [6]. Microperforated panels (MPPs) with the
hole diameter under millimeter (0.5–1 mm) have been rec-
ognized as one of the most promising alternatives for next-
generation sound absorbing materials [7].
As a kind of porous material, textiles such as nonwoven,
woven, and knitted fabrics have recently attracted great
attention for sound absorption application due to their
low-cost and low environment impact [8–10]. A number of
investigations on nonwoven fiber webs in terms of the
noise-absorption properties and theoretical analyses have
been conducted in this area [11]. However, despite their
promising noise absorption properties and low cost, it is
difficult to produce a textured surface for nonwovens with
an aesthetically pleasing appearance. Thus nonwoven fiber
webs are usually draped with a woven fabric [12]. Plain
weft-knitted fabric was also proposed for application in
sound absorption, but its noise absorption performance is
poor [10]. In order to improve the noise absorption ability
of knitted fabrics, spacer structures were first introduced
by Dias et al. [13, 14]. Their studies focused on the sound
absorption properties and theoretical modeling of weft-
knitted spacer fabrics, which are composed of two plain
knitted surface layers and a spacer layer made of multifila-
ment yarns through tuck stitches. They found that the
sound absorbency of the weft-knitted spacer fabric is effec-
tive only from 2000 Hz onwards. Furthermore, they also
studied the sound absorbency of the weft-knitted spacer
fabric made of monofilament yarn as a spacer yarn, in com-
bination with a uniform pattern of micropores on the sur-
faces. Their work showed that this kind of fabric could
provide reasonable absorbability at mid-high frequencies,
but with a narrower absorption frequency range. Though
knitted spacer fabrics are more expensive than nonwovens,
their appearances and structures are designable and this
characteristic can raise their added values.
This paper reports an investigation on the sound
absorption behavior of both weft and warp-knitted spacer
fabrics and their combinations. The objective is to find out
a sound absorber with improved sound absorbency at
lower frequencies with a relatively wider absorption fre-
quency range.
Experimental
Samples
Both the weft and warp knitted spacer fabrics and their
combinations were used in this study. The weft-knitted
spacer fabric used was denoted as sample A, and it was
knitted on a Stoll CMS 822 E7.2 computerized flat knitting
machine of gauge 14, using the nylon/spandex 70D/20D
yarn as the outer layer yarns and 150Den/64F textured pol-
yester multifilament as the spacer yarns. The yarn path
notation of the fabric structure is shown in Figure 1. This
was a weft-knitted spacer fabric specially designed for
sound absorption. In this fabric structure, both the top and
bottom layers are produced with varied plain knitted struc-
ture and they are interconnected together with six separate
spacer yarns through tuck stitches. The fabric sample after
a steaming treatment is shown in Figure 2. It can be seen
that lots of void pores between two outer layers are formed
due to the interconnection of textured polyester multifila-
ment yarns. Thus, this weft-knitted spacer fabric could be
considered as a kind of porous sound absorber. In addi-
tion, the slits formed between the adjacent spacer yarns are
good for sound waves to penetrate into the fabric.
The warp-knitted spacer fabric used in this study was
denoted as sample B, and it was produced on a KARL
MAYER RD 6 N E24 double-needle bar Raschel machine
of gauge 24, which is equipped with six yarn guide bars.
The chain notation and material used for each bar are
listed in Table 1. Different from the weft-knitted spacer
fabric sample, the spacer yarn used in the warp spacer fab-
ric was monofilament yarn. The fabric sample after dyeing
is shown in Figure 3. It can be seen that the holes in the
elliptical form are regularly distributed on the fabric sur-
face. The perforated ratio, which is defined as the ratio
between the surface area of the holes and the total area,
was 5.4%. As the minor axis of each hole is smaller than
one millimeter, the fabric could be modeled as a microper-
forated panel (MPP) absorber. Besides, the void spacer
between the two outer layers could be considered as an air
gap.
All the fabric samples were conditioned for 24 hours at
20 °C and 65% relative humidity before testing. The struc-
tural details of two kinds of fabrics after being conditioned
Figure 1 Yarn path notation of weft-knitted spacer fabric.
 Sound Absorption Behavior of Knitted Spacer Fabrics Y. Liu and H. Hu 1951 TRJ

Figure 2 Weft spacer fabric sam-

ple.

Figure 3 Warp spacer fabric sam-

ple with hole size and distribution.

Table 1 Chain notation and yarns used for warp-knitted spacer fabric.
Chain notation Yarn
GB1 1-0-0-0/1-2-2-2/2-3-3-3/3-4-4-4/4-5-5-5/4-3-3-3/3-2-2-2/2-1-1-1// 150D/48F polyester
GB2 4-5-5-5/4-3-3-3/3-2-2-2/2-1-1-1/1-0-0-0/1-2-2-2/2-3-3-3/3-4-4-4// 150D/48F polyester
GB3 1-0-1-2/1-2-1-0// 30D/1F polyester
GB4 2-3-4-5/3-2-1-0// 30D/1F polyester
GB5 4-4-4-5/4-4-4-3/3-3-3-2/2-2-2-1/1-1-1-0/1-1-1-2/2-2-2-3/3-3-3-4// 150D/48F polyester
GB6 1-1-1-0/1-1-1-2/2-2-2-3/3-3-3-4/4-4-4-5/4-4-4-3/3-3-3-2/2-2-2-1// 150D/48F polyester
TRJ 1952 Textile Research Journal 80(18)
Table 2 Structural details of spacer fabrics.
Samples Air resistance (KPa·s/m) Thickness (mm)
A 0.513 7.480
B 0.013 4.324
WPC, wales per cm; CPC, courses per cm.
are given in Table 2. The air resistance was measured with
the KES-F8-AP1 air permeability tester and the fabric
thickness was measured with a KES-FB3-A compression
tester at a pressure 0.5 gf/cm2. Here WPC is the number of
wales per cm and CPC is the number of courses per cm.
Sound absorbency tests
The sound absorbency tests were carried out by measuring
the noise absorption coefficient (NAC) using a Brüel &
Kjær two-microphone impedance measurement tube 4206
according to the ISO 10534-2 standard. As shown in Fig-
ure 4, the tube, of which the diameter is 29 mm, was
designed to measure the noise absorptions of normal inci-
dent sounds within 0–6400 Hz.
All the samples for testing were firstly cut into the circular
form of 29 mm in diameter, and then placed into the imped-
ance tube either being close to the metal plunger or leaving a
distance as air-back cavity depending on the test conditions.
The sample placement shown in Figure 4 is a combination of
A-B without an air-back cavity. For testing multilayered sam-
ples, the samples should be closed and conjoined together.
The single layer and multilayer weft-knitted and warp-knit-
ted spacer fabrics, which were laminated with the same or
different kinds of fabrics, were tested in this study.
Porosity (%) Density (kg·m–3) WPC CPC
89.068 150.868 9.2 24.0
90.958 124.774 10.0 16.5
Results and discussion
Sound absorption behavior of single layer
spacer fabrics
The noise absorption coefficients (NACs) of single layer
spacer fabrics without an air-back layer are shown in Fig-
ure 5. It is found that the NACs of both samples A and B
increase with increase of the frequency. The NACs of sam-
ple A are 0.06, 0.14 and 0.35 at 500 Hz, 1000 Hz and 2000
Hz, respectively, which exhibits a typical sound absorption
behavior of porous material. Compared with sample A,
sample B has lower NACs for all the frequencies. The
NACs of sample B are 0.035, 0.05 and 0.07 at 500 Hz, 1000
Hz and 2000 Hz, respectively. Furthermore, the curve of
sample B has two slight peaks. This is the typical behavior
of MPP absorbers originating from combining different
sizes of perforated holes. Due to the existence of slits like
perforated holes, sample A can also be considered as a
perforated panel absorber if the air-back cavity exists. The
NACs of A and B with two different thicknesses (8 and 16
cm) of air-back cavity are shown in Figure 6. It can be seen
that all the sound absorption curves are in the form of fre-
quency spectra, because the existence of the air-back cavity
causes frequency-selected sound absorptions due to the
Figure 4 Sound absorbency meas-
urement system.
 Sound Absorption Behavior of Knitted Spacer Fabrics Y. Liu and H. Hu
Figure 5 NACs of single layer spacer fabrics without air-
back cavity.
Figure 6 NACs of spacer fabrics with air-back cavity.
resonance of the system. Moreover, the existence of the
air-back cavity results in narrower absorption frequency
ranges, but with higher NACs at lower frequencies if com-
pared to the case where no air-back cavity is used. The
thickness of the air-back cavity also has the influence on
the NACs. The increase of the air-back cavity makes the
absorption frequency move toward the lower frequency
side.
From Figure 5 and 6, it can also be found that sample
A has better sound absorbability than sample B for both
cases of using and not using the air-back cavity due to
higher thickness. However, its sound absorbency at lower
1953 TRJ
frequencies is still very low without the use of air-back
cavity.
Sound absorption behavior of multilayered
spacer fabrics
The above analysis has shown that the single layer spacer
fabric possesses low NACs at lower frequencies. Though
the use of the air-back cavity could enhance the NACs, the
frequency range became very narrow. In addition, the use
of the air-back cavity is not convenient in the practical
application for spacer fabrics. In order to improve the
NACs at lower frequencies, the use of laminated absorbers
with the increased thickness is the most commonly used
method. In this section, the NACs of the sound absorbers
laminated with the same kind of spacer fabric are pre-
sented.
For porous sound absorbers, the NACs depend on their
thickness, porosity, airflow resistivity and appearance. In
general, increasing the thickness can considerably enhance
the NACs at low frequencies. However, the increase of the
thickness does not have the obvious effects on NACs at
high frequencies and may result in slight reduction in NAC
sometimes. Also, the effect of increasing the thickness to
enhance the NACs at low frequencies is limited, since the
NACs no longer increase after the thickness reaches a crit-
ical value. This phenomenon can be confirmed by Figure 7,
where the NACs of the porous sound absorbers laminated
together with different layers of the same weft-knitted
spacer fabric are shown. It can be found that the two-lay-
ered spacer fabrics already have a very obvious improve-
ment in the sound absorption capacity of the spacer fabric
at low frequencies. However, the improvement becomes
Figure 7 NACs of weft-knitted spacer fabrics laminated
with different layers.
TRJ 1954 Textile Research Journal 80(18)
slower after two layers, and the effect of increasing the
thickness on the NACs is no longer observed after five lay-
ers. To further improve the NACs, other methods such as
increasing the porosity, airflow resistivity and fabric sur-
face smoothness or a combination of different kinds of fab-
rics, could be considered. The peaks around 1600 Hz found
in Figure 7 for the absorbers laminated from two to eight
layers of spacer fabrics could be the resonance of the sys-
tem.
For MPP absorbers, the NACs depend on the perfora-
tion ratio, dimension of the perforated holes, thickness of
the panel and thickness of the air-back cavity. The MPP
absorbers provide high absorbability at mid-high frequen-
cies. However, their absorption frequency ranges are nor-
mally limited because of their nature as a resonator. To
obtain a wider frequency range for sound absorption, the
combination of multilayered MPP absorbers with different
frequency characteristics or the use of a MPP absorber
with different size of perforated holes are always adopted.
The NACs of the MPP absorbers formed with different
layers of warp-knitted spacer fabrics are shown in Figure 8.
It can be found that the NACs significantly increase with
the increase of fabric layers. In addition, the resonance
phenomena are observed for all the fabric layers and their
resonance region shifts towards the lower frequency side
with an increase of the fabric layers. By examining the
curve of the thickest absorbers formed with eight layers of
sample B, two peaks respectively at 2128 Hz and 6184 Hz
are found due to resonance. According to the curves in
Figure 8, it can be predicted that the NAC will continu-
ously increase with increase of the fabric layers. Thus, it is
expected that an absorber with better sound absorbability
can be obtained if enough layers are used. This behavior is
different from that of the sound absorbers formed with dif-
ferent layers of weft-knitted spacer fabric, as explained
before.
Figure 8 NACs of warp-knitted spacer fabrics laminated
with different layers.
Based on the sound absorption principle of MPPs, it is
possible to fabricate different kinds of warp-knitted spacer
fabrics with different frequency characteristics. The
lamination with different warp-knitted spacer fabrics or
the use of different mesh size on the same fabric can be
potential ways to achieve a broader absorption frequency
range.
Sound absorption behavior of combined
multilayered spacer fabrics
In industrial applications, multilayered sound absorbers
composed of both perforated panels and porous materials
are widely adopted for broadband noise absorptions [15].
In this regard, the sound absorption behavior of multilay-
ered spacer fabrics laminated with different combinations
of sample A (porous material) and sample B (perforated
panel) were studied. Two cases, where sample A was
placed on the front or the back of sample B, were consid-
ered.
The NACs of different layers of sample B backed with
one layer of sample A are shown in Figure 9. Compared
with Figure 8, it can be noticed that the sound absorbability
of the warp-knitted fabrics can be considerably improved by
backing one layer of sample A. Moreover, it can also be
found that the resonance regions shift towards the lower fre-
quency side when the layers of sample B increase. This
phenomenon has already been observed in Figure 8. How-
ever, the NACs for the low frequencies under 500Hz are
still less than 0.5, which is a critical value normally used to
assess whether a sound absorber is good or not. As two-lay-
ered weft-knitted spacer fabrics already have a very obvi-
ous improvement of the sound absorption capacity at lower
Figure 9 NACs of different layers of B backed with one
layer of A.
 Sound Absorption Behavior of Knitted Spacer Fabrics Y. Liu and H. Hu 1955 TRJ

Figure 10 NACs of different layers of B backed with two Figure 11 NACs of one layer of A backed with different
layers of A. layers of B.

frequencies (Figure 7), the NACs of different layers of

sample B backed with two layers of sample A were also
investigated. The results are shown in Figure 10. It can be
seen that in this case the NACs for both lower and higher
frequencies are further improved and a broader absorption
frequency range has been achieved. It is also found that the
NAC of 8B-2A at 500Hz reaches 0.5. By observing the
curves in Figure 10, it is also noticed that the curved wave
forms for the middle and high frequencies become
straighter, and thus the sound absorption behavior of the
fabrics becomes more stable. If the layer number of sample
A continues to be increased, the NACs at low frequencies
could be improved further, but this improvement should be
limited since the results shown in Figure 7 have already
confirmed that the NACs no longer increase when the
thickness reaches a critical value. Besides, increasing the
layers of the fabrics will result in an increase of material
use and cost. At the same time, too high thickness of the Figure 12 NACs of two layers of A backed with different
sound absorbers is not convenient in practical application. layers of B.
By changing the arrangement sequence, i.e., by swap-
ping the positions of weft-knitted and warp-knitted spacer
fabrics, the sound absorption behavior gets quite different.
The NACs of one layer of A backed with different layers of low frequencies are further improved. At the same time,
B are shown in Figure 11. Compared with Figure 9, it can the curved wave forms for the middle and high frequencies
be found that in this case the sound absorption capacity of become straighter. This situation is the same as shown in
the multilayered spacer fabrics at low frequencies are Figure 10, but with lower values. The small peaks around
much better improved with increase of sample B layers, 1500Hz due to resonance are still observed in this case.
but the NACs for higher frequencies are much lower, The above results show that the arrangement sequence
though their values are bigger than 0.5. The same phenom- has an obvious effect on the sound absorption. This is
enon, i.e., the shift of the resonance regions towards the because the different positions of sample B result in dif-
lower frequency side, is also observed. The small peaks ferent sound absorption effects. When sample B is placed
around 1500 Hz are found due to resonance. The NACs of before sample A, sample B performs as a resonator
two layers of sample A backed with different layers of sam- absorber, which it is helpful for improving the NACs for
ple B are shown in Figure 12. It is found that the NACs at all the frequencies. Conversely, when sample B is placed
TRJ 1956 Textile Research Journal 80(18)
Figure 13 Comparison of the NACs for sample A backed
with air layer or eight-layered sample B.
behind sample A, it performs as a air-back cavity and leads
to an increase of the thickness of the system. In this case,
the NACs of the system can be significantly increased at
low frequencies, but with a cost of NAC reduction at high
frequencies. The NACs of one or two layers of sample A
respectively backed with 4 cm air layer and eight layers of
sample B are shown in Figure 13. Here, the thickness of
the air-back cavity (4 cm) is close to that of eight layers of
sample B (3.46 cm). It can be found that the curves
between the same layered sample A backed with the air-
back cavity and eight layered sample B are nearly coinci-
dent when the frequencies are below 3000 Hz. The differ-
ences of the NACs above 3000 Hz are due to the minor
thickness difference between eight layers of sample B and
the air-back cavity as well as the space occupied by sample
B. These results indicate that air-back cavity can be
replaced by multilayered warp-knitted spacer fabrics to
achieve high NACs at low and middle frequencies. This
can be a convenient way for the practical application.
Conclusions
The sound absorption behavior of knitted spacer fabrics
was studied. The effects of different fabric layers and
arrangement sequences on the noise absorption coefficient
were analyzed and compared. The following conclusions
can be obtained from this study:
1. While the weft-knitted spacer fabric exhibits the typ-
ical sound absorption behavior of porous absorber,
the warp-knitted spacer fabric exhibits the typical
sound absorption behavior of microperforated panel
(MPP) absorber. The noise absorption coefficient
(NAC) increases with increase of the frequency for
both kinds of fabrics.
2. Both the weft-knitted and the warp-knitted spacer
fabrics backed with the air-back cavity exhibit fre-
quency-selected sound absorption with a resonance
form.
3. The sound absorbability can be improved by lami-
nating different layers of fabrics. For the weft-knit-
ted spacer fabric, the NACs significantly increase
from one layer to four layers and thereafter more lay-
ers are no longer effective. However, for the warp-
knitted spacer fabric, the NACs can continuously be
improved with increase of the fabric layers, but with
a shift of the resonance region towards the lower fre-
quency side.
4. The combinations of weft-knitted and warp-knitted
spacer fabrics can significantly improve their sound
absorbability, but their arrangement sequence has
an obvious effect. At higher frequencies, the NACs
of the warp-knitted spacer fabrics backed with weft-
knitted fabrics are much higher than those of the
weft-knitted spacer fabrics backed with warp-knitted
fabrics. However, at lower frequencies, the NACs of
the warp-knitted spacer fabrics backed with weft-
knitted fabrics are much lower than those of the
warp-knitted spacer fabrics backed with weft-knitted
fabrics.
5. The air-back cavity can be replaced by multilayered
warp-knitted spacer fabrics to achieve high NACs at
low and middle frequencies.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge the funding sup-
port from the Block Grant except CRG of The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University (Grant No. 1-ZV0M).
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