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Sound Attenuation Performance Of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composite Circumaural Hearing Protection Devices, Steven Christopher Augustine

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Personnel who work on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier are exposed to extreme levels of jet engine noise often in excess of 140 decibels (dB). The current circumaural hearing protective devices (CAHPD) employed by flight deck crewmen are inadequate for the level of protection required for these extreme levels of noise. Fiber-reinforced thermoset polymer composite (FRPC) materials such as aramid fibers used in body armor, have high theoretical values of acoustic impedance due to a fundamentally high modulus of elasticity and may offer a superior level of hearing protection over original equipment (OE) thermoplastic CAHPDs. The objective of …