Acoustic foam
Encyclopedia
Acoustic foam is an open celled foam
used for acoustic treatment. It attenuates airborne sound waves by increasing air resistance, this reducing the amplitude
of the waves. The energy is dissipated as heat
. Acoustic Foam can be made in several different colors, sizes and thickness. It is Best applied directly to a wall.
Acoustic foam comes in a variety of sizes and can be attached to walls, ceilings, doors, and other features of a room to control noise levels, vibration, and echoes.
Many acoustic foam products are treated with dye
s and/or fire retardant
s.
within the room.
.
For this reason, acoustic foam is often used in recording studio
s. The purpose is to reduce, but not entirely eliminate resonance within the room. This is achieved by placing similar sized pieces of foam, often in the shape of cones or triangles, on opposite walls.
Acoustic foam is often used to reduce echos
by attaching it to the walls of large rooms, like churches, synagogues and temples. Using jagged acoustic foam to baffle the sound can help, as does hanging sound baffle
s that break up the empty space in high ceilings and large rooms.
Foam
-Definition:A foam is a substance that is formed by trapping gas in a liquid or solid in a divided form, i.e. by forming gas regions inside liquid regions, leading to different kinds of dispersed media...
used for acoustic treatment. It attenuates airborne sound waves by increasing air resistance, this reducing the amplitude
Amplitude
Amplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable with each oscillation within an oscillating system. For example, sound waves in air are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation...
of the waves. The energy is dissipated as heat
Heat
In physics and thermodynamics, heat is energy transferred from one body, region, or thermodynamic system to another due to thermal contact or thermal radiation when the systems are at different temperatures. It is often described as one of the fundamental processes of energy transfer between...
. Acoustic Foam can be made in several different colors, sizes and thickness. It is Best applied directly to a wall.
Acoustic foam comes in a variety of sizes and can be attached to walls, ceilings, doors, and other features of a room to control noise levels, vibration, and echoes.
Many acoustic foam products are treated with dye
Dye
A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....
s and/or fire retardant
Fire retardant
A fire retardant is a substance other than water that reduces flammability of fuels or delays their combustion. This typically refers to chemical retardants but may also include substances that work by physical action, such as cooling the fuels; examples of these include fire-fighting foams and...
s.
Sound blocking
The objective is to stop sound from entering or leaving a space. This purpose requires all walls, ceiling and floor to be covered in acoustic foam, effectively eliminating all resonanceAcoustic resonance
Acoustic resonance is the tendency of an acoustic system to absorb more energy when it is forced or driven at a frequency that matches one of its own natural frequencies of vibration than it does at other frequencies....
within the room.
Acoustic enhancement
The objective is to enhance the properties of sound by improving speech clarity and sound qualitySound quality
Sound quality is the quality of the audio output from various electronic devices. Sound quality can be defined as the degree of accuracy with which a device records or emits the original sound waves...
.
For this reason, acoustic foam is often used in recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
s. The purpose is to reduce, but not entirely eliminate resonance within the room. This is achieved by placing similar sized pieces of foam, often in the shape of cones or triangles, on opposite walls.
Acoustic foam is often used to reduce echos
Echos
Echos is the name in Byzantine music theory for a mode within the eight mode system , each of them ruling several melody types, and it is used in the melodic and rhythmic composition of Byzantine chant , differentiated according to the chant genre and according to the performance style...
by attaching it to the walls of large rooms, like churches, synagogues and temples. Using jagged acoustic foam to baffle the sound can help, as does hanging sound baffle
Sound baffle
A sound baffle is a construction or device which reduces the strength of airborne sound. Sound baffles are a fundamental tool of noise mitigation, the practice of minimizing noise pollution or reverberation. An important type of sound baffle is the noise barrier constructed along highways to...
s that break up the empty space in high ceilings and large rooms.