Characterization and analysis of ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula) fibres and its potential application in sound insulation

Ridge gourd, the fruit of Luffa acutangula, is extensively used throughout the world. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of scientific information related to the thermal, mechanical and chemical properties of these fibres to explore its potential application in textile industry. This research work is aimed to characterize the L. acutangula plant and investigate its potential application in sound insulation. The fibres are arranged in a cell like structure, when opened it gives a very lower fibre length of less than 10 mm. The chemical composition of fibres is as like other lignocellulosic fibres having around 64% cellulose, 21% hemicellulose and 10% lignin. The density is of fibre is around 1.46 g/cc and having the average linear density of 432 denier. The nonwovens were produced by blending the L. acutangula fibre with cotton as well polyester fibre webs using layering technique at three different blend proportions and their influence on bulk density, sound insulation, thermal resistivity and air permeability has been analysed. The ANOVA analysis showed that all the properties mentioned above was significantly influenced by the blend proportion of L. acutangula. The nonwoven sample produced from 50/50 blend proportion of cotton/luffa and polyester/luffa samples showed better sound reduction and thermal resistivity compared to other samples. The cell-like structure of luffa combined with low bulk density and higher thickness resulted in better results.