Development of High-Fidelity Numerical Methodology Based on Wavenumber-Frequency Transform for Quantifying Internal Aerodynamic Noise in Critical Nozzle

Abstract

In industrial fields dealing with high-temperature and high-pressure gas such as chemical, petrochemical, and offshore oil production plants, piping systems with valves are frequently used to protect the relevant system and equipment from being damaged by such gases. However, excessive noise is sometimes generated by the valve flow in the piping system, causing so-called acoustic induced vibration in the pipe wall. Therefore, it is of great importance to design the related system to avoid this phenomenon. In this study, a high-fidelity numerical procedure is proposed to assess the acoustic power generated by pressure relief devices in a pipe. The method consists of three sequential steps: high accuracy large eddy simulation, wavenumber-frequency transform, and duct acoustic theory. The critical nozzle is selected as a target system since it is commonly used as a flowmeter and thus there are a lot of relevant data for comparison. First, the steady Reynold-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) solver is used to predict the flow rate of the two-dimensional axisymmetric critical nozzles, and its validity is confirmed by comparing the predicted results with the measured ones. There is good agreement between the two results. Then, a high accuracy Large Eddy Simulation (LES) technique is performed on the three-dimensional critical nozzle, and the steady-state RANS result is used as the initial condition to accelerate the convergence of the unsteady simulation. The validity of the unsteady LES results is also confirmed by comparing them with measured surface pressure data. The wavenumber-frequency transform is taken on the LES results, and the compressible surface pressure components matching the acoustical duct modes are identified in the wavenumber-frequency pressure diagram. The inverse wavenumber-frequency transform taken on the compressible pressure components leads to the acoustic power spectrum. These results reveal that the current numerical procedure can be used to more accurately predict the acoustic power generated by pressure relief device in the piping system.