Investigation on sound scattering performances of wooden and bamboo diffusers

Wood and bamboo are both sustainable and healthy materials for use in interior design. In addition, the surface texture and grain of wood and bamboo give them special acoustic characteristics which can play an important role in the interior acoustic design. The sound scattering properties of interior surfaces provide a good and consistent spatial distribution of sound energy. Interior wood diffusers can contribute to the uniform distribution of sound, music and speech, strengthening the dominant sound effect and enhancing the quality of the overall indoor sound environment. Experimental results showed that none of the test materials provide good scattering effects at low frequencies(100–250 Hz), but provide significantly improved scattering effects at mid-to-high frequencies(500–3.15k Hz). Japanese cedar had the best scattering properties, while medium density fiberboards (MDF) was better than plywood and Ramin. Bamboo and bamboo tubes had the poorest scattering properties and provided only a narrow effective bandwidth.