Acoustic Resonance of a Steam Line Gate Valve

A pure tone phenomenon has been observed at 460 Hz on a piping steam line of a power plant. The source has been identified to be generated in a gate valve and to be of cavity noise type. This paper presents the investigations carried out on experimental models in order to analyze the problem. 2D and 3D axisymmetric models are used and lock-in situations between shear layer modes and acoustic duct modes are proven to give rise to powerful tones. Some counter measures are also tested with the objective of lowering the amplitude of pressure oscillations.Copyright © 2013 by ASME