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Procedia Engineering 106 (2015) 277 – 283

Dynamics and Vibroacoustics of Machines (DVM2014)

Development of a pressure pulsation damper for gas pressure

regulators with account of operation parameters
Mikhail A. Ermilova, *, Alexander N. Kryuchkovb,
Maxim V. Balyabab, Konstantin U. Shabanovc
a
Samara State Aerospace University, Moskovskoe shosse, 34, Samara, 443086, Russian Federation
b
The Institute of Acoustic of Machines SSAU, Moskovskoe shosse, 34 campus building 14, office 324, 320, Samara, 443086, Russian Federation
c
Gazprom Transgas Samara LLC, 106A Novo-Sadovaya St., Samara, 443068, Russian Federation

Abstract

A design concept of a gas flow pulsation damper at a pressure regulator outlet is offered. It is formulated the operational principle
of this damper, which contains the orifice with high and low resistance and also the stabilizer (vortex damper) of an outflow.
Future references for choosing the diameter and the amount of passages in the orifices are also done. It is proposed the sequence
of choosing the damper parameters, which contains the stages of tentative gas-dynamic calculation of the plain washer
parameters on basis of the Saint-Venant-Wenzel formula and the final modeling, produced on basis of the numerical simulation.
It is presented the pulsation damper, which was developed by the offered method.
©2015
© 2014TheThe Authors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by Elsevier Ltd.
Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the Dynamics and Vibroacoustics of Machines (DVM2014).
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the Dynamics and Vibroacoustics of Machines (DVM2014)
Keywords: Pneumatic and gas systems, gas pressure regulator, gas-distribution station, aerodynamic noise, gas throttling, sound power.

1. Introduction

An important problem connected with operation of gas-distributing stations and knots is increased noise levels
and vibrations caused by a high-speed gas flow rate downstream of pressure regulators. Such intensive gas flow
occurs due to a high pressure drop (3…4 MPa) over gas pressure regulators. Significant values of sound pressure

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +79277446376;

E-mail address:emasamara@gmail.com

1877-7058 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the Dynamics and Vibroacoustics of Machines (DVM2014)
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2015.06.036
278 Mikhail A. Ermilov et al. / Procedia Engineering 106 (2015) 277 – 283

inside the pipe generate the vibration of the pipe walls [1, 2 and 3]. Such high-frequency vibration can lead to
gradual destruction and damage of the pipes. This is the result of acoustic fatigue which is highly dangerous in the
presence of asymmetric forms of natural oscillations of the pipe and in the case of the pipe branches and junctions in
the construction [4, 5 and 6].
The Gas Pressure Regulators (PR) are intended to reduce and keep constant pressure at the set level [7]. Flow
restriction occurs in the narrowest section of the PR. In the majority of cases (at critical pressure drop) speed in this
section is supersonic. The gas flow at the PR output is a main source of the pipeline system noise (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Noise emission in pipeline system with the gas pressure regulator: 1-regulator; 2-output pipeline.

The most effective way of the noise reduction during PR operation is installation of pressure pulsations dampers
at its output [8]. The pressure pulsations damper has to effectively reduce noise of the regulator so as its capacity
shouldn't change.

2. Theoretical basics of PPD development

Noise of gas dynamic origin has random character and is usually observed in a wide range of frequencies.
Intensity of gas dynamic noise increases with a flow rate and reaches maximum value at sonic and supersonic flow
velocity.
The acoustic power of Waк radiated by a flow is proportional to a flow speed at 6-8 ratios (depending on Mach
number), to a gas density square in a flow and to the square of flow diameter [9]:

U c2V 8 D 2
Wак k0 (1)
U 0Vзв3

where:
k0 - proportionality coefficient;
pc - flow density, kg/m3;
V - flow velocity;
D - flow diameter, m;
Vs - sound speed, m/s.
Therefore, to achieve the noise reduction of high-speed turbulent flows is possible by means of:
flows speed reduction;
x reduction of gas in flows density;
x reduction of its diameters;
x step pressure decline.
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3. Method of PPD development

As mentioned above, the most effective solution of the problem of noise and vibration of pipeline fittings is
installation of a pressure pulsations damper at the output of the regulator which has the following functions:
x reduction of the pressure difference on the regulator and, thereby, a decrement of the maximum flow speed
in the regulator;
x stepped restriction of the general pressure difference in order to reduce a gas speed in the damper elements;
x fragmentation of the flow in order to move the frequency of maximum of acoustic radiation of flows to the
high-frequency area.

Fig. 2. A fragment of pipeline system with the regulator (1) and a pressure pulsations damper (2).

Depending on the output pressure of PR we can calculate the level of sound pressure generated by the regulator at
a certain distance from an output pipe (see Fig. 3) by the method stated in [9]. This method also considers various
modes of noise initiation in the valve depending on a structure of a gas flow (the aerodynamic modes) which borders
are also shown at the Fig. 3. It is shown at the graph that there is such an output pressure Pexcrit (at constant Pinp ) at
which the maximum level of sound pressure is observed. Therefore, the drop on PPD has to satisfy some conditions:
x pressure difference has to be such value, that pressure at the exit from the regulator
x Pregoutp>Pexcrit (2)
x pressure difference on the damper should not limit the capacity of all system in common (PR+PPD).
280 Mikhail A. Ermilov et al. / Procedia Engineering 106 (2015) 277 – 283

Fig. 3. The schedule of change of acoustic level pressure of PR (PR aero acoustic operating modes are specified in figures).

After the choice of the pressure difference on the PPD it is necessary to choose the number of its restriction steps
(throttle plates) taking into account that in order to do such functions the pressure pulsation damper has to consist of
3 parts such as:
x discharging (reducing pressure difference on PR) part (with a condition (2) demanded pressure difference),
including package from 1-2 throttle plates; pressure difference on these plates should be 85 … 90% of
the general pressure difference for the PPD;
x fragmentation of the flow and consisting a series of plates (a package of plates from 4–7 throttle plates
depending on the demanded efficiency of PPD) with small pressure difference, pressure difference on
these plates should not be more than 10…15% of the general pressure difference for PPD;
x reduction of the flow whirls, containing a whirl rectifier which should work at a minimum possible
pressure difference
After the distribution of pressure difference at the above mentioned parts it is necessary to determine the diameter
and number of orifices on each throttle plate, using a formula of Saint-Venan-Ventsel [10], for definition of mass
flow

2˜k ª 2 k 1
º
G F ˜P˜ ˜ P1 ˜ U1˜ « E k  E k » (3)
k 1 ¬ ¼

where:
F - the total area of orifices in plates;
P - expense coefficient;
k - adiabatic curve indicator;
P1 - entrance pressure;
U1 - gas density at input;
E - pressure after a plate to pressure after relation coefficient.
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The choice of diameter and the number of orifices in throttle plates is necessary to do in such a way that, on the
one hand, the velocity of gas in orifices should be less than the sound speed (this regulation is actual for throttle
plates) and, on the other hand, it should be decreased softly for all throttle plates till the minimum possible speed,
determined by crossection of the output pipeline. Holes diameter should be the minimum possible for more effective
flow fragmentation. However, there are technological and exploitational restrictions for this diameter. The first
restrictions are related with the difficulty and much labour intensity of making holes less than 1 mm in diameters,
the second – with the possibility of its choking and obstruction by condensate.
The quantity of holes is regarded approximately and is précised during the virtual modeling of each plate in
particular in ANSYS Fluent program package. Afterwards, such calculations are made regarding the whole model
(see Fig. 4).
The boundary conditions are mass consumption and pressure at the output for each plate in particular.

Fig. 4. Pressure difference across a damper at 2,5 kg/sec mass flow rate.

Consequently, an algorithm of PPD development was offered and it is shown in Fig. 5.

282 Mikhail A. Ermilov et al. / Procedia Engineering 106 (2015) 277 – 283

Fig. 5. PPD development algorithm.

Taken references:
x Pinp - pressure at input of the damper, Pa;
x Poutp – pressure at output of the damper, Pa;
x Gmax - maximum mass consumption, kg/sec;
x Kv – consumption ratio;
x Kr – repressuring ratio;
x As - sound speed in environment, m/sec;
x p – environment density, kg/m3;
x K – adiabatic ratio;
x X i - flow velocity, m/sec;
x X ic - précised flow velocity, m/sec;
x H - possible inaccuracy.
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Pulsation damper is shown in Fig. 6, which was designed according to this algorithm for P inp=4.7 MPa, Poutp = 0.7
MPa, G=2.5 kg/sec, the working body is methane. According to the testing of the physical model of the device, the
PPD effectiveness is 34 dBA.

Fig. 6. PPD sectional view of medium efficiency (throttle plates and whirl rectifier) for GDS.

Conclusion

The method of pulsation dampers development after pressure regulators was offered. The principle of stepped
throttling with the reduction and flattening of the output flow is the basis of the method. This method was tested on
the damper for pressure regulator of the gas distribution station with an average efficiency.

Acknowledgements

The work was supported by Russian Federation Ministry of Education and Science.

References

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