sustainability Review Sound-Absorbing Acoustic Concretes: A Review Mugahed Amran 1,2, * , Roman Fediuk 3 , Gunasekaran Murali 4 , Nikolai Vatin 5 and Amin Al-Fakih 6   Citation: Amran, M.; Fediuk, R.; Murali, G.; Vatin, N.; Al-Fakih, A. Sound-Absorbing Acoustic Concretes: A Review. Sustainability 2021, 13, 10712. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su131910712 Academic Editor: Hailong Ye Received: 14 July 2021 Accepted: 26 August 2021 Published: 27 September 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Alkharj 11942, Saudi Arabia 2 Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and IT, Amran University, Amran 9677, Yemen 3 Polytechnic Institute, Far Eastern Federal University, 690922 Vladivostok, Russia; fedyuk.rs@dvfu.ru 4 School of Civil Engineering, SASTRA Deemed to be University, Thanjavur 613404, India; murali@civil.sastra.ac.in 5 Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, 195251 St. Petersburg, Russia; vatin@mail.ru 6 Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar 32610, Malaysia; amin.ali_g03663@utp.edu.my * Correspondence: m.amran@psau.edu.sa or mugahed_amran@hotmail.com Abstract: Noise is continuously treated as an annoyance to humans and indeed commotion con- tamination shows up within the environment, causing inconvenience. This is likewise interesting to the engineering tactic that inclines to develop this noise proliferation. The basics of the sound- retaining proliferation, sound-absorbing properties, and its variables were rarely considered by previous researchers. Thus, the acoustic performance and sound insulation of constructions have gained significance over the last five decades due to the trend for accommodating inner-city flat and multi-story residential building condominiums. Due to this dilemma, the proliferation of high-driven entertaining schemes has engaged extraordinary demands on building for its acoustic performance. Yet, construction industries worldwide have started to mainly use sound-absorbing concrete to reduce the frequency of sounds in opened-and-closed areas and increase sound insulation. As reported, the concrete acoustic properties generally rely on its density, exhibiting that the lighter ones, such as cellular concrete, will absorb more sound than high-density concretes. However, this paper has an objective to afford a wide-ranging review of sound-absorbing acoustic concretes, including the measurement techniques and insulation characteristics of building materials and the sound absorption properties of construction materials. It is also intended to extensively review to provide insights into the possible use of a typical sound-absorbing acoustic concrete in today’s building industry to enhance housing occupants’ efficiency, comfort, well-being, and safety. Keywords: concrete; noise; sound; absorb acoustic concrete; cement composites 1. Introduction The rapid development of cities and their saturation with various transports led to an increased noise level [1]. Acoustic comfort is a feature of urban comfort, recognized by doctors, and becomes an indispensable activity for civil engineering and urban planning. Therefore, reducing ambient noise is of importance in modern society not only because of the recent awareness of noise as a significant risk to health and because of an increasingly important level and quality of life [2]. Various concretes are the primary building material of our time. The application areas of sound-absorbing concrete are quite diverse: in civil engineering, this is soundproofing the facades of buildings and interior partitions; and in town planning, for example, the creation of soundproofing fences on high-speed roads. An- other critical factor is the protection against infrasound occurring near wind power stations, railway bridges, cooling towers, and inside automobiles [3–5]. In addition, the possibility of protection against infrasonic acoustic weapons has recently become important. A sound is a wave form of energy that passes through solids, liquids, or gases. The more vibrating particles in the medium the more energy that is transmitted. Waves of the Sustainability 2021, 13, 10712. https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910712 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability