Designing and manufacturing of polyester composites reinforced with natural and synthetic fibers as an alternative for the wood in music instruments

Abstract

In this study, three composites (Carbon fiber- Polyester resin, Glass fiber-Polyester resin and Hemp fiber-Polyester resin) are designed as a substitute for the wood in music instruments and their acoustic properties such as elastic modulus, acoustic coefficient, and acoustic coefficient efficiency are investigated. For better evaluation of the results, two wood specimens from Cupressus arizonica and Morus Alba trees (which are using in many acoustic applications) were chosen and analyzed as control samples. The results show that the resultant composites possess essential acoustic and vibrational properties so that the result for Carbon fiber-Polyester composite exhibits tremendous acoustic properties than wood samples did. In this paper, the water absorption of resultant composites and wood samples were also measured. The results demonstrate that composites specimens could resist against humidity much better than wood samples.

Keywords

• Carbon fiber
• Glass fiber
• Hemp fiber
• polyester resin
• Acoustic properties
• Cupressus arizonica and Morus alba tree woods
• water absorption