IMPLEMENTATION OF NOISE CONTROL MEASURES

Dr Chew Chye Heng Associate Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering, NUS

Hierarchy of control 1) Elimination 2) Substitution

eg. replace noisy process/machinery with quieter process/machinery, etc

3) Engineering Control.
eg. enclosures, modification, etc.

4) Administrative Control.
eg. production schedule to limit daily exposure, rotation of workers, etc

5) Personal Protective Equipment

Three locations of noise control

Principles of Noise Control

substitution modification damping isolation silencer

enclosure barrier absorption distance

enclosure ear protectors exposure time

Substitution
metal gear with plastic gear roller conveyor with belt conveyor pneumatic tools with hydraulic tools single nozzle with dual nozzle gear drives with belt drives

Noise control at source

Two aspects of noise sources must be examined. Type and manner of noise emission Whether it is practical to reduce the noise output at source may reduce the effectiveness of source, make access difficult or cause the source to get too hot.

Vibration

Air Turbulence

Reduction of Radiating Surface

Stage design

Original

Modified

Modification of Radiating Surface

Replace solid metal cover with perforated sheet metal and wire mesh.

Negative pressure

Positive pressure

Forward movement

Positive pressure flows to negative pressure rather than emits as sound.

Elimination of Wind Tones

Symmetrical objects generate pure tones. To eliminate pure tone, object should be long In direction of air flow, or irregular shape

Elimination of pure tone by s strip of metal round chimney with varying pitch.

Directivity of sound source

Siren mounted on top of moving crane. Siren to warn workers that crane is moving. Siren noise a nuisance to nearby residents.

Original

Proposed

Air Discharge under Transmission Path

Intermittent Air Discharge

Chamber stored air discharged and regulates air discharge at low velocity larger discharge area.

Silencers
1 Absorptive or dissipative e.g. lined duct, cylindrical attenuator, plenum chamber 2 Reactive or reflective e.g. expansion chamber, cavity resonator 3 Dispersive or diffusive e.g. air shroud, restrictive, multiple-jet

Types of Silencer

Attenuator / Silencer

Enclosure test chamber

Chamber to calibrate noise sensitivity of test pieces.

Double diffraction

Original

Modified

Enclosure Effect of Absorption

TL of hood material, dB Average sound absorption Effective TL, dB 0.1 10

20 0.2 13 0.5 17 0.1 20

30 0.2 23 0.5 27

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Attenuating Material e.g. sheet metal, concrete, brick, glass to reflect the incident noise
Transmission Loss (TL)

The no of dB by which sound energy is reduced by transmitting through an attenuating material TL = 20 dBA Example:
90 dBA 70 dBA

Transmission Loss (TL) The Mass Law

TL = 20 log (f w) - 48
f is the frequency c/s w is the surface density kg/m2 TL by 6 dB if frequency is doubled TL by 6 dB if thickness is doubled

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Absorbing Materials
Absorption Coefficient - e.g. fibrous glass, polyurethane, rock wool to absorb the incident sound energy

ranges from 0 to 1 is higher at higher frequency

high frequency noise can be absorbed more readily than low frequency noise

Barrier or Shield
max noise reduction (NR) = 15 to 20 dBA

source

receiver

length > 4 x height TL > 5 dB + NR

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Sound barrier is less effective in an indoor environment

Room Treatment
noise reduction often < 7 dBA only reflected noise is reduced, not direct noise good for room with many noisy machines at best is like removing the walls noise reduction is at some distance from the machine

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Room Treatment
Adding sound absorbing materials to the inner surfaces will reduce the reflected noise

Hard interior surfaces

Interior surfaces lined with absorbing materials

Room Treatment - example

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Opening Gap
1 TL = 1`0 log10
door = 10 3 , gap = 1 av =
A1 A door + 2 gap A A 3 5 ( )1 = (1)10 + 2500 = 3x10 3 1 TLav = 10 log av = 25 dB

or

= 10 TL / 10

For example, with a gap of 5 mm and TL door = 30 dB

TL of partition material, dB Air gap, mm Effective TL, dB 1 28

30 2 27 5 25 1 33

40 2 30 5 27

Generator set

Typical Generator Set

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Generator set
Preventing short circuit Barrier to rain

Turning Plate

Enclosure

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Strategy of Control
1st control the highest dBA source Next control the next highest dBA source,etc Consider the surrounding noise sources Consider the background dBA

Procedures of Control
1 2 3 4 5 6 Identification of sources Ranking of sources Establish design criteria Determine the NR required Selection of control options Installation / fabrication

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