Acoustics
ACI designs and manufactures acoustic attenuation and pulsation control devices that can solve vibration issues while often reducing pressure losses.
Flat plate orifices are widely used in the gas compression industry as parts of a system designed to damp the pressure pulsations created by reciprocating compressors. They are inexpensive and effective devices when used in a properly designed pulsation control system. Their most serious drawbacks are that they reduce pulsations by putting restrictions in the gas stream and are fixed to narrow frequency ranges. The DVO features a variable geometry which can be adjusted in place, either manually or automatically, while the compressor is running to account for different compression conditions and speeds, thereby providing a much wider effective range of operation and minimizing flow restrictions as much as possible.
API Standard 618 Fourth Edition, June 1995, design approach options 1, 2 or 3. Includes evaluation of pulsation suppression devices and supports considering static loading, acoustical shaking forces and mechanical responses.
Reciprocating compressors, by their very nature, create pressure pulsations. Those pressure pulsations often vary in frequency as the compressor speed varies. In some cases, this makes elimination of the pulsations challenging. One solution to this uses a Tunable Side Branch Absorber, essentially a tunable resonator that produces pressure pulsations which are then used to cancel the compressor-generated pressure pulsations without producing flow induced pressure losses in the piping. The TSBA can be set to track the compressor speed to cancel the offending pressure pulsations without restricting gas flow.
To introduce the Tunable Side Branch Absorber to market, the Southern Gas Association, Gas Machinery Research Council (GMRC), and ACI Services have completed a license agreement that authorizes ACI to develop and market products that incorporate GMRC’s patented tunable side branch absorber (TSBA) technology.
