In a power plant with gas turbines (combustion turbines), exhaust is a very powerful noise source potentially causing sound nuisance for personnel of the operator operating in the vicinity as well as for the neighborhood (including long distance, a fortiori in the case of tall stacks). It is often necessary to use in such cases a soundproofing equipment of high technology to ensure compliance of the installation on the one hand with respect to the legislation on noise at work and on the other hand with respect to the regulation in terms of environmental protection. In fact gas turbines exhaust silencers must often have outsized acoustic performance (the overall sound power level to consider is often of the order of 135 dBA and noise emissions are with a very wide frequency spectrum) in a context where very high temperatures (around 550 °C or sometimes more) and very high gas flow rates (which are sometimes counted in hundreds of kg/s) must be considered: great care must be taken on the occasion of the study and of the sizing to limit the total pressure loss directly impacting the productivity of the plant.
ITS will participate in the study and sizing of an exhaust silencer for a gas turbine / combustion turbine with a power of 12 MW in the context of a project of refurbishment of a power generation unit near Dortmund in Germany.
Of course, this soundproofing equipment must have a sound transmission loss particularly important. But in addition, with a flow rate that can reach 49 kg/s and with a temperature that can reach 585°C, the flow speed of exhaust gas into the silencer will be extremely high, requiring a specific study and sizing of the silencer in particular with respect to issues related to aerodynamic and to self-noise.
Therefore, the simulation of the insertion loss (with or without flow noise) as well as of the total pressure loss of the silencer (whose splitters will be equipped of extremities with a special aerodynamic shaping) in the foreseen operation conditions was performed by the means of the acoustics simulation software SILDIS®.
Specific absorbent materials wich properties must satisfy both the ambitious goals of acoustic performance and also to requirements related to mechanical and thermal extreme solicitations will be accounted on the occasion of study and sizing as required for this exhaust silencer for a gas turbine / combustion turbine.
In addition, the course of this project shows - once again - the possibilities for design and optimization of soundproofing equipment of the software SILDIS®, whose computing power and reliability, as well as whose versatility made of it a choice tool for the selection of products and construction systems for many projects of sound insulation, in the context of industrial soundproofing as on the occasion of actions for improving acoustical comfort in building sector.