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Blower's pulsation dampener using reactive silencers

Conference Paper · May 2019

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Paul Liang
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Blower’s pulsation dampener using reactive silencers
Paul Liang
Babcock & Wilcox Universal
1925 Hwy 51& 138
Stoughton, WI 53589 USA

ABSTRACT
Pulsation dampeners absorb the energy from the flow pulsation created by a positive
displacement (PD) blower such as a Roots blower. Absorbing those pulse waves is critical
to protecting downstream system components. The pulsation induced vibration of the
silencer is the major contributor to the silencer’s structural failure. A two-chamber
reactive silencer has been demonstrated to achieve a 30-fold pulsation reduction. Although
reactive silencers are widely used as the pulsation dampener in many applications, limited
information is available regarding a well-functioning blower’s pulsation strength and the
prediction of the silencer’s pulsation reduction. When designing a blower silencer, one
should avoid the silencer’s acoustic cross-wall modes and the longitudinal modes that align
with the blower’s PPF (Pocket Passing Frequency). To most accurately check the silencer’s
condition, one should measure the pulsation strength at the silencer’s drain hole.

1 INTRODUCTION

Gas pulsation, a high-pressure sudden discharge into the expander outlet, is a small pressure
perturbation (fluctuation) of the mean pressure. It is relatively low frequency and high amplitude.
The gas pulsation force will cause structural vibration. This force can not only shake the silencer
wall but also propagate downstream, causing pipe fatigue damage. A 0.45 in/s (11.4 mm/s) peak
vibration at the blower’s bearing is considered an acceptable level per Reference1.
The pulsation force can be mitigated by a pulsation dampener2-3. One effective method is to
use a multiple-chamber reactive silencer. The silencer decreases the pulsation amplitude at
Pocket Passing Frequencies (PPF). The PPF(s) of a 2-lobe Roots blower are calculated as PPF (s)
= 4*RPM (blower)1 and its harmonics. The acceptable pulsation level is 8% of the blower’s
discharge pressure (absolute) measured at 1 pipe diameter from the blower/silencer downstream1.

___________________________
Email: pliang@universalaet.com
2 TEST SETUP

A 2-lobe Roots blower, the Tuthill PD Plus 1215 with a maximum 15 psig discharge
pressure, was used for the test. It was driven by a 250 HP, 460 V motor. A two-chamber reactive
silencer was mounted at the blower discharge. A PCB 116B dynamic pressure transducer was
mounted to measure the pressure variations (pulsations) on various ports around the silencer as
shown in Figure.1. The blower ran from 1,800 – 2,600 CFM, which corresponds to 1,100 – 1,740
RPM. For the purpose of this discussion, we only listed the 2,400 CFM results (or 1,580 RPM).

D2

D0

D1

Fig. 1 – Pressure ports around the discharge silencer. The D0 at silencer entrance; D1 and D2 at
the 1st chamber; D3 at the 2nd chamber (not shown) and D4 at the drain plug (not
shown).

3 PULSATION REDUCTION

Gas pulsation is a sudden, high-pressure discharge of air rushing into the expander outlet. It
can be effectively reduced by using a reactive silencer. The pulsation reduction can be measured
by comparing the pressures difference of the silencer’s inlet D0 to the outlet. However, the pipe
outlet is hidden in the ceiling and difficult to reach, therefore, we used the pressure of the port at
the last silencer chamber, D3 as the outlet pressure. In this paper, D3 pressure is used as the
outlet pressure.
The blower’s PPF frequencies at 1,580 RPM (or 2,400 CFM, 1.13 m3/s) can be calculated at
1x, 2x, 3x and 4xPPF as 105, 210, 315 and 420 Hz, respectively. The pulsations at D0 and D3
are shown in Figure 2. The outlet pressure at D3 is nearly zero. The pressure reduction at each
PPF is listed in Table 1. The silencer achieved 26 to 36 dB pressure reductions at peaks. The
pressures at different blower speeds can be seen in Appendix A. The average pressure (overall)
at D3 is about 30 times less than the pressure at D0 (or 30 dB reduction.) The static pressure of
the blower discharge was not measured during the test.
The silencer wall vibration at D2 is shown in Figure 3. The first four peaks at 1x, 2x, 3x and
4xPPF are 0.55, 1.0, 0.9 and 0.3 g, respectively. This corresponds to 0.32, 0.29, 0.18 and 0.04
in/s. Based on the author’s experience with this type of application, if silencer wall vibrations
exceed 10 g, it could cause silencer structure failure. The acceptable vibration limit at the
blower’s bearing is 0.45 in/s (11.4 mm/s)1.
Fig. 2 – Pulsation amplitudes of the inlet (D0) and outlet (D3) at 1,580 RPM (or 2,400 CFM).
The overall pulsation pressure at outlet D3, 0.02 psi, is nearly zero.

Table 1 – Pulsation amplitudes at inlet/outlet ports, D0 and D3 at blower speed 1,580 RPM.
The data at D1, D2 and D4 are for reference.
105 210 315 420 Overall
Frequency, Hz
(1xPPF) (2xPPF) (3xPPF) (4xPPF)
D0, psi 0.428 0.184 0.088 0.040 0.52
D3, psi 0.009 0.003 0.004 0.002 0.02
Reduction(1), dB 34 36 27 26
D1, psi 0.228 0.013 0.011 0.001 0.25
D2, psi 0.011 0.032 0.026 0.001 0.05
D4, psi 0.274 0.023 0.037 0.004 0.28
Note: (1) Pulsation reduction= 20log(D0/D3), dB

D2, ov= 1.72 g

Fig.3 – Vibration amplitudes at port D2.

4 ACOUSTIC MODELING

A two-chamber acoustic model was created for this study. The tank diameter was φ30 in.
with φ12 in. (φ762 mm with φ304 mm) connections. The total chamber length is 125 in. (3,175
mm), with the first chamber being 78 in. (1,981 mm) long. Since the pulsation is a small pressure
fluctuation similar to the acoustic wave, it is interesting to see the correlation between the
predicted silencer’s Transmission Loss (TL) and the measured pressure reduction of the silencer.
Here we used the B&W Universal proprietary code, QMAP to calculate the TL. The QMAP is a
1-D modeling tool based on the plane wave assumption. Although the cut-off frequency of the
plane wave was 275 Hz, the predicted TL (narrow band) seems to correlate well with the
pressure reductions, up to 315 Hz (3xPPF) as shown in Figure 4.
The measured shell surface temperature was between 93 – 109 oF (34 – 43 oC). The
estimated internal gas temperature was 113 oF (45 oC). The silencer’s cross-wall modes and
longitudinal modes can be calculated through Eqns. (1, 2) below2, 4:

𝜋𝑓𝑑 (1)
𝛺 = , 𝛺1 = 1.84 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝛺2 = 3.83
𝐶
𝐶 (2)
𝑓 = 𝑖∗ , 𝑖 = 1, 2, 3, 4, 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑 − 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠,
2∗𝐿

where, Ω is dimensionless frequency for a circular duct, f is Hz, d is 30 in. (φ762 mm)
diameter, C is 14,066 in./s (357 m/s) at 113 oF (45 oC) and L is 78 in. (1,981 mm).

The calculated acoustic cross-wall modes are 275 and 572 Hz per Eqn. (1). The 1st
chamber’s first four longitudinal modes are 90, 181, 271 and 361 Hz per Eqn. (2).

Fig. 4 – Correlation between predicted TL (curve) and the measured pulsations reduction (bars).
It seems to correlate well up to 315 Hz.
 The average pulsation reduction for various blower speeds is about 30 dB. The predicted
octave-band TL in the 100 Hz is 24 dB, as seen in Figure 5. It seems that the predicted octave-
band values are conservative for being used as the prediction of the pulsation reduction.

Fig. 5 – Correlation between predicted octave-band TL and the measured average pulsations
reduction at various blower speeds.

5 CONCLUSIONS

This paper provided the information regarding a well-functioning Roots blower’s pulsation
strength and the silencer wall vibration. The test silencer is working properly and has been in
service since 1998. A typical pulsation at the discharge silencer drain plug (D4) or silencer’s
inlet (D0) should be below 0.6 psi (overall, 4,138 pa). The drain plug is a convenient location
that can be used to monitor the flow pulsation health for reactive silencers.
A typical vibration level on the silencer wall should be below 2 g (overall). The pulsation
reduction at each PPF can be roughly predicted by using the calculated TL. For a two-chamber
reactive silencer, a 30 dB pulsation reduction is possible.

6 REFERENCES

1. Howden Blower, “Rotatory lobe blower vibration & pulsation limits.” Personal collection.
2015.

2. A. Brummer, “Causes and effects of pulsations in compressor systems.” Technische

Universitat. PP. 16, 20 and 38

3. D. Smith, “Pulsation, vibration, and noise issues with wet and dry screw compressors.”
Proceedings of the Fortieth Turbomachinery Symposium. 2011. P.197

4. P. Liang, “Attenuation of higher order circumferential thermoacoustic waves in viscous fluid

lines.” J. of Sound and Vibration 193(5), 1996. PP. 1107 and 1110.
 Appendix A: Flow pulsations at various blower speeds on discharge silencer

Fig. A – The average pressures (overall) at various ports for blower ran at 1,100 – 1,740 RPM.

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