A Study on the Noise Characteristics of Cooling Tower

냉각탑의 방사소음특성에 관한 연구

In general, a cooling tower has two major noise sources, one is the fan and the other is the falling water. The fan noise is produced by passage of its blades through the air and radiates from the fan stack. Noises from the falling water are caused by splashing and dropping of water cascading over the internal filler of the cooling tower and into the basin and radiate from the louvered face. In this paper, the noise measurements and its frequency analysis are carried out for the locations facing the louvered side and near the fan stack referring the related code and standards in order to study the noise characteristics of the induced-draft cooling tower, especially for the buildings. As a result, it is found that for every doubling of distance from the noise source the noise level decreases by 2~4dBA in the near field with reflect surfaces and decreases by about 6dBA also in the far field without reflect surfaces. As a supplement to the noise measurements, a computer program with simple algorithm is developed in order to estimate the noise level at a distance from the cooling tower, so that the user could apply and modify it for the particular boundary conditions easily.