Gas turbine inlet silencer
OwnerRobert A. Putnaminventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for attenuating sound emissions from an inlet to a flow path for an air inducting machine including an inlet duct structure having inlet and outlet passages. A planar vortex generator is located adjacent to the outlet passage and creates vortices that interact with a specific tonal acoustic frequency emitted from the inlet of the machine to effect formation of a standing wave at the vortex generator. The standing wave has an upstream propagating component that reflects off an acoustic reflector wall to form a reflected component that interferes with the upstream propagating component to attenuate the specific tonal acoustic frequency from the inlet of the machine.
Claims20
A system for attenuating sound emissions from an inlet to a flow path for an air inducting machine, the system comprising:
- an inlet duct structure having an inlet passage and an outlet passage downstream from the inlet passage, the outlet passage defining an outlet plane extending span-wise generally perpendicular to flow through the outlet passage;
- a vortex generator located adjacent to or upstream of the outlet passage, the vortex generator extending across the outlet passage and defining a plane, the vortex generator creating vortices that interact with a specific tonal acoustic frequency emitted from the inlet of the machine to effect formation of a standing wave;
- an acoustic reflector wall located on the inlet duct between the inlet and outlet passages, upstream of the vortex generator and oriented generally parallel to the plane of the vortex generator;
- and
- wherein the standing wave has an upstream propagating component that reflects off the acoustic reflector wall to form a reflected component that interferes with the upstream propagating component to attenuate the specific tonal acoustic frequency from the inlet of the machine.
A method of attenuating sound emissions from an inlet to a flow path for an air inducting machine, the method comprising:
- providing a flow of air through an inlet duct structure having an inlet passage and an outlet passage, the outlet passage defining an outlet plane extending span-wise generally perpendicular to flow through the outlet passage;
- directing the flow of air over a vortex generator located adjacent to or upstream of the outlet passage to create vortices that interact with a specific tonal acoustic frequency emitted from the inlet of the machine to effect formation of a standing wave;
- providing an acoustic reflector wall located on the inlet duct between the inlet and outlet passages upstream of the vortex generator and oriented generally parallel to the plane of the vortex generator;
- and
- wherein the standing wave has an upstream propagating component that reflects off the acoustic reflector wall to form a reflected component that interferes with the upstream propagating component to attenuate the specific tonal acoustic frequency from the inlet of the machine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.