NOISE REDUCTION BY CAVITATIONS CONTROL

INTRODUCTION: CAVITATION:
When we heard the word cavitations then the first thing which strikes in our mind is something related to formation of cavity or we can say formation of void The literal meaning of cavitations is related to formation of bubbles in liquid when we are dealing with hydraulic machinery. Although cavitations can be defined in number of ways but basically it is defined as a formation and instantaneous collapse of innumerable tiny voids or cavities with in a liquid subjected rapid and intense pressure changes, or we can say it is the phenomenon of production of voids in a liquid system due to extreme reduction of internal pressure .Collapse of these voids produce very large impulsive pressure which can cause considerable damage to near by surfaces, This process is very frequent in high speed impellor blades. Cavitations is referred as a condition where a low pressure is formed on the surface of the impellor , this low pressure will cause water to vaporize into steam and when these steam bubbles are passing through the area having high pressure these bubbles will implode and cause severe damage to the impellor in co-operate with noise and vibration. It occurs in hydraulic system as a result of low fluid level that draw air into the system producing tiny bubbles that expand explosively at the pump outlet causing metal erosion and eventual pump destruction.

OCCURENCE OF CAVITATIONS:Cavitations occurs when the velocity of liquid increases to the point where the consequent pressure drop reaches the pressure of vaporization of liquid, when this happens, vapor pockets or bubbles from the liquid and later collapse when subjected to high pressure at some other point in the flow. The collapse of the vapor bubble can takes place with considerable force. This effort is coupled with the rather corrosive action of vapor bubbles moving at high speed can severely pit and corrode impellor surface sometime even pump casing , in some cases cavitations there is structural failure of impellor blades. Whenever cavitations occurs it is frequently signed by a clearly audible noise and vibration. Cavitations can also be caused by improper operation of the pump, for instance cavitations can occur when sudden and large demand for liquid are made upon the pump . As the liquid discharged from the pump is rapidly distributed and used downstream, a suction effect is created on the discharge side of the pump, thus pressure head on discharge decreases. Velocity of the liquid flowing across the impellor increases up to a point where cavitations occurs.

DAMAGES CAUSED BY CAVITATIONS :1.Abnormal sounds and vibrations:As we know during cavitations , there is movement of bubbles from low pressure area to high pressure area and subsequent collapse that creates shock waves producing abnormal sounds and vibrations .It has been estimated that during collapse of bubbles , the pressure of the order of 10<4 develops. The sound of cavitations can be described similar to hard particles which are rapidly striking or bouncing off the interior parts of the pump. Various terms like knocking, crackling are used for the abnormal sounds. The sound of pumps operating while cavitations can range from low pitched steady knocking sound to a high pitched and random cracking (metal impact). Similarly vibrations is due to the loading of the impellor as the mix of vapors and liquid passes through it and to the local shockwave that occurs as each bubbles collapse . Formation and collapsing of bubbles will alternate periodically with the frequency resulting out the product of bubbles and its speed. The vibration associated with cavitations process have a high frequency of 2000hz. The excessive vibration caused by the cavitations subsequently causes a failure of the pumps bearing. The frequency of vibration produced during cavitations process depends on the type of installation and its design.

Cavitations erosion and Pitting :During cavitations , the collapse of the bubbles occurs at the sonic speed , ejecting destructive micro jets of extremely high velocity up to an order of 1000 m/sec which is strong enough to cause erosion of the pump and related mechanical components,

particularly impellors, the bubble is trying to collapse from all the sides but if the bubble is lying against apiece of metal it cannot collapse from that side , so the fluid comes from opposite side at this high velocity and bangs against the metal and creating a long term impression called PIT, which is defined as plastic deformation of very small dimension. This damage is called cavitations erosion or pitting . The most sensitive area where cavitations erosion occurs is low pressure side of the impellor where the bubble actually originates. There are some instances , cavitations has been severe enough to wear holes in the impellor to such an extent ,the impellor becomes totally ineffective.

Cavitations Corrosion:Frequently cavitations is combined with corrosion. The implosions of bubble destroys existing protective layer making the metal surface permanently activated for the chemical attack, thus in this case , even a small cavitations leads to severe damage

METHODS TO REDUCE NOISE CAUSED BY CAVITATIONS:Although there is no full proof methods to control or reduce noise produced during cavitations but following two methods are implemented to reduce certain level of noise . 1.Noise reduction by Polymer Addition. 2. Noise reduction by Ultrasonic. Noise reduction by polymer addition:In order to control noise, designers must first determine where the noise source or the source how much each is contributing to the overall noise. Once the source have been identified ,they can be ranked by how much contributes to the overall noise level. This is most important because if lower level noise contributors are silent first, this will not reduce the overall noise level. When trying to control noise in any type of machinery, designers generally use basically four types of element called- absorption, barrier, dampers and gasketing materials Absorption material:A good material will soak up air borne sound energy waves by changing the wave energy into heat as it passes through the absorption medium. Absorption material are generally either

fibourous or cellular. Common fibre materials are fibre glass, mineral wool and ceramics. These are applied as blankets or semi rigid sheets which can be cut to shape. Generally they are film faced to prevent the fibres from being dislodged and causing problem in air-handling system. Newly developed melamine and polyamide cellular materials offer significant advantages over traditional urethanes in many respects. The melamine required only 40% of weight of comparable urethanes and has no smoke or non-toxic by products of combustion.

. BARRIERS:These are two types of barriers- those that already exist ( wall, cabinets, enclosures etc) and supplement barriers are those which are add if existing wall is not thick enough, in this case mass is the key to control noise. Mass law for homogeneous material gives rough approximation of the amount of noise that can be controlled . However the same noise reduction cannot be achieved at all the frequencies. There is less noise reduction in lower frequencies than the higher frequencies for given mass.

But this concept is related to concept of perfect walls when there is no opening, when openings are created for pipe wires, air and products to enter and exit, noise is let out. The amount of noise reduction expected from a perfect wall diminishes drastically in the real world. As the opening size increases as a percentage of total enclosures area, the actual noise reduction decreases. The above concept can be understood with the help of an example with transmission potential of 20 decibel or greater and 10% opening, designers can never get more than 10 decibel noise reduction, However noise reduction can be achieved drastically by sealing around wires, pipes and air ducts in addition to this noise reduction is increased by providing absorption lined tunnels. DAMPING:All materials have natural frequency when the are excited by some external source at this normal frequency, they will vibrate, this causes the air surrounding the material to vibrate and produce noise sometimes referred as oil can phenomenon. Properly applied damping material will only work, if the metal to which they are applied are vibrating at a near of their resonant frequency. Damping material are temperature sensitive so they must be selected both for their temperature range and the operating temperature of the material. Damping material work to reduce the vibration in the material to which they are applied by dissipating the vibration energy as heat. Damping materials are termed vico-elastic because of their viscous and elastic properties. Homogeneous or free layer damping material are generally vinyls which have platelet type fillers in them. As the material to which they are applied vibrates, the platelets slide against each other and the friction between them vibration energy into heat.

The other type of damping material is called constrained layer, here the vico-elastic polymer is homogeneous and sandwitched between two plates. These are bonded together usually with a structural epoxy adhesives. Polymer thickness is determined by the frequencies to be attenuated, generally thicker the polymer, lower the frequency and conversely the thinner the polymer, higher the frequency. Each formulation of polymer has a finite temperature range, over which it will be effective. With the help of damping material about 14 decibel of sound reduction can be achieved. GASKETING:Generally this concept is given less importance .. Gasketing material are generally soft, urethanes, neoprenes, pliable formed vinyls. The important characteristic they exhibit for noise control is sealiblity or conformability to the irregular surfaces between which they are placed. Closed cell materials make better gaskets than open cells but their design is more complicated because they are harder to compress due to entrapped gas in each cell. A good gasket material properly designed for the application will easily reduce noise by 6 decibel or more.

NOISE REDUCTION BY ULTRASOUNDS

Ultra sounds can produce temperature as high as those on the surface of the sun and pressure as that of bottom of the ocean.

Applications of ultrasonic to reduce the abnormal sound produced during cavitations is related to chemistry of ultra sound called sono chemistry.. Ultrasounds are high intensity sound waves which can be produced with the help of electric energy, the electric energy is used to cause the motion of solid surface such as piezoelectric crystal, piezoelectric materials expand and contract when electric field is applied to them, for production of ultrasounds alternating current is allowed to pass through a piezoelectric crystal. When ultrasounds are pass through a liquid, the expansion cycle can create cavities in the liquid , this will happen when negative pressure exceeds the local tensile strengththis negative pressure is created by expansion cycle. The local tensile strength of liquid depends upon the type and purity of a liquid, since most of the liquids are contaminated by sufficient amount so cavitations process is initiated at small negative pressure. Ultrasounds absorb the sound waves produced by air bubbles and increasing the bubble size, thus by applying ultrasounds we can reduce the noise but bubble size is increase..

When we consider the concept of ultrasound in solid liquid interface, which is quiet common in cavitations process, then we found that there are basically two proposed mechanisms for the effect of cavitations near the surfaces , micro jet impact and shock wave damage . The symmetry of the environment near the interface induces a deformation of the cavity , this deformation is self reinforcing and it sends a fast moving streams of liquid at the surface having a velocity of 1000m/sec.

The second mechanism invokes shockwaves created by cavity collapse in the liquid .The existence of both the mechanisms have been established, and both these mechanisms are responsible for the creation of localized erosion responsible for ultrasonic cleaningunder these conditions the ultrasound may absorb the sound waves but it leads to creation of big air bubbles. Thus ultrasound may absorb the audible noise produced during cavitations but indirectly enhance the cavitations process by increasing the bubble size.

Our ideas:
By propagating reverse waves in the region where we think there is possibility of maximum cavitations formation. In the initial stage as the liquid starts flowing through the region of maximum cavitations formation, as the liquid starts flowing and there is change of pressure in the region, bubble formation and collapse of these bubbles takes place, due to this phenomena noise & vibration would be produced. These activities are high enough to be easily detected in case of large machinery. These vibrations are detected by the pneumatic load cells. The vibrations put stress on the membrane of the pneumatic load cells, and these will send the activating signal to the electronic wave pulse generator .and due to potential difference created there will be a wave propagated. Only two things we have to look out for that is (i) propagation of the wave should be synchronized. (ii) We have to see whether the waves propagated are in phase or out of phase. 2. Flushing out the region with the prepared slurries which would dispel the liquid from the walls of the region by adhering to the walls of the region. Although it is at the cost of efficiency yet it seems to be quite achievable. The feasibility of these two methods are still not sure but if they are implemented under proper conditions and guidance they lead to effective result.
1.

CONCLUSION
Finally we would like to conclude that Polymer addition and Ultrasounds are the most coveted methods of acoustic control. They are pioneer steps towards maximum noise reduction and are still behemoth subjects of research going on at leading institutions of research.