Körük, Hasan (MEF Author)Considering the adverse effects of petroleum-based materials on nature, finding and developing new materials as alternatives to these chemical materials become a necessity in practice. On the other hand, these new materials need characterization to be considered and effectively used in practical applications. The acoustic properties of luffa bio fiber and composite materials are investigated in this study. First, the preparation of various luffa test samples and the method for acoustic characterization of the luffa samples is presented. Then, the acoustic absorption properties of both luffa fiber and composite materials are identified using the impedance tube method. After that, the transmission loss levels of the same luffa samples are determined. All the results are evaluated and the acoustic performances of luffa materials are highlighted

Although the physical properties of a structure, such as stiffness, can be determined using some statical tests, the identification of damping parameters requires a dynamic test. In general, both theoretical prediction and experimental identification of damping are quite difficult. There are many different techniques available for damping identification, and each method gives a different damping parameter. The dynamic indentation method, rheometry, atomic force microscopy, and resonant vibration tests are commonly used to identify the damping of materials, including soft materials. While the viscous damping ratio, loss factor, complex modulus, and viscosity are quite common to describe the damping of materials, there are also other parameters, such as the specific damping capacity, loss angle, half-power bandwidth, and logarithmic decrement, to describe the damping of various materials. Often, one of these parameters is measured, and the measured parameter needs to be converted into another damping parameter for comparison purposes. In this review, the theoretical derivations of different parameters for the description and quantification of damping and their relationships are presented. The expressions for both high damping and low damping are included and evaluated. This study is considered as the first comprehensive review article presenting the theoretical derivations of a large number of damping parameters and the relationships among many damping parameters, with a quantitative evaluation of accurate and approximate formulas. This paper could be a primary resource for damping research and teaching.

We propose acoustic particle palpation—the use of sound to press a population of acoustic particles against an interface—as a method for measuring the qualitative and quantitative mechanical properties of materials. We tested the feasibility of this method by emitting ultrasound pulses across a tunnel of an elastic material filled with microbubbles. Ultrasound stimulated the microbubble cloud to move in the direction of wave propagation, press against the distal surface, and cause deformations relevant for elasticity measurements. Shear waves propagated away from the palpation site with a velocity that was used to estimate the material's Young's modulus.

The acoustic properties of natural fiber-reinforced composites should be identified before using these materials in various engineering applications including sound and vibration isolation. This study investigates the effects of sample thickness and fiber/resin ratio on the acoustic performance of jute and luffa fiber-reinforced biocomposites. For this purpose, jute and luffa composite samples with different thicknesses and fiber/epoxy ratios are manufactured and their sound absorption coefficients (SACs) and transmission losses (TLs) are determined using impedance tube method. Thickness-dependent tendencies of the SACs and TLs of jute and luffa composites for low-, medium-, and high-frequency ranges are identified. The effect of fiber/epoxy ratio on the acoustic properties of jute and luffa composites as a function of frequency are determined. Furthermore, the SACs and TLs of some natural fiber-based samples with different thicknesses are predicted using mathematical models and the theoretical and experimental results are compared and evaluated.