Prediction of cooling tower noise emissions

Abstract

Cooling towers are commonly significant contributors to the overall noise emitted by power generation facilities. Because power generation facilities are often required to meet strict environmental noise criteria, predicting the potential noise impact of the cooling tower during the design of the facility is important in developing noise mitigation strategies. The prediction technique must accurately simulate the noise radiation pattern associated with the cooling tower. The main components of noise associated with mechanical draft cooling towers generally include the water falling over the fill media, the operation of the fan units, and the operation of the circulating water pumps. This paper summarizes a study of cooling tower noise modeling techniques frequently used to simulate sound propagation. The noise emitted from a mechanical draft cooling tower is modeled by various directional point source configurations to account for each noise component. Additionally, the noise barrier effect of the cooling tower is included. The noise impact predicted by the cooling tower models are compared to field sound level measurements in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the cooling tower models.