A Hydroacoustic Investigation of the Suppression of Pressure Pulsations using Herschel-Quincke Tubes

Abstract

An ongoing issue in which the nuclear industry is continuously faced with is pressure pulsations in piping systems. This phenomenon can become critical when the pulsation frequency emitted from rotating and reciprocating turbomachinery coincides with one of the acoustic natural frequencies of the connected piping system, potentially yielding acoustic resonance. Studies to date have proven the successful application of passive damping devices into air-filled piping systems to attenuate these pressure pulsations. However, there has been no efforts to validate the concept of such designs into a water-filled piping system. A Hydroacoustic investigation is performed for Herschel-Quincke tubes in piping systems to attenuate pressure pulsations. A highlight is placed on the precautions which are necessary in order to accurately tune a Herschel-Quincke device to the desired frequency of interest. Through insertion loss and transmission loss measurements, this work concludes that the Herschel-Quincke device is successful in attenuating pressure pulsations within water-filled piping systems.