AFRC-JFRC 2004 Joint International Combustion Symposium

October 10-13, 2004.

F la re s — N o is e P r e d ic tio n a n d T h e r m o - A c o u s tic

E ffic ie n c y

Carl-Christian Hantschk and Edwin Schorer

Miiller-BBM GmbH,
Robert-Koch-Strasse 11, D-82152 Planegg, Germany
Phone: +49.89.85602-269, Fax: +49.89.85602-111
e-mail: CHantschk@MuellerBBM.de, ESchorer@MuellerBBM.de

A b stra c t

In m an y in d u stries w here co m b u stib le w a ste gases are o b ta in ed ,

flares are u sed to burn th ese gases in a controlled m anner. A m o n g other
en v iro n m en ta l a sp e c ts th e n oise em issio n s a sso c ia te d w ith flaring are
b eco m in g in crea sin g ly im p o rta n t in m an y coun tries as p o p u la tio n d en ­
sity goes up an d resid en tial an d in d u stria l areas m ove closer togeth er.
In sta llin g n oise con trol eq u ip m en t on flares is a lm o st im p o ssib le w h ile
th e y are in service, since flares are ty p ic a lly a safety related p lan t co m ­
p on en t th a t can o n ly b e tu rn ed off after th e co n n ected plant has b een
shut dow n. A ccordingly, p red ictin g th e n oise em issio n s o f flares is crucial
as early in th e d esig n p rocess as p o ssib le in order to p la n ap prop riate
noise control m easures in tim e and to avoid u n n ecessa ry costs. A con ­
cep t to c a lcu la te flare n oise is to use th e ’’T h er m o -A c o u stic E fficien cy”
(T A E ) w h ich is th e ratio b etw een th e a co u stica l pow er and th e h eat re­
lease rate o f th e bu rn in g p rocess. V alues for T A E are u su a lly d eterm in ed
e x p e r im e n ta lly in th e te st field an d th e n u sed for sim ilar flare design s
an d o p era tin g c o n d itio n s. In th e present work n oise levels from field
m easu rem en ts on a num ber o f different fu ll-scale in d u stria l flare ty p e s
are p u t to g eth er and th e corresp on d in g T A E valu es are com pared. It is
seen th a t th e T A E con cep t has sh o rtcom in g s r esu ltin g from oversim p li­
fication o f th e n oise gen era tin g m ech a n ism s o f flares. For im proved flare
noise m o d elin g th e various n oise sources co n trib u tin g to th e overall noise
em issio n s o f flares m u st b e tak en in to accoun t. T h e present p aper su m ­
m arizes th ese sources and o u tlin es th e in d iv id u a l effects and param eters
ha v in g an influence on th e a co u stica l ch aracteristics o f flares.