Optimizing Dry Ice Blasting Nozzle Divergent Length using CFD for Noise Reduction

Mohamad Nur Hidayat  Mat; Nor Zelawati  Asmuin; Nor Halim  Hasan; Hanis  Zakaria; Muhammad Faqhrurrazi  Abd Rahman; Riyadhthusollehan  Khairulfuaad; Balasem Abdulameer  Jabbar

Authors

Mohamad Nur Hidayat Mat Department of Mechanical Engineering, Fakulti Kejuruteraan Mekanikal, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Johor, Malaysia
Nor Zelawati Asmuin Department of Mechanical Engineering, Fakulti Kejuruteraan Mekanikal, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Johor, Malaysia
Nor Halim Hasan Department of Occupational Safety and Health Sarawak, Ministry of Human Resources Malaysia, Malaysia
Hanis Zakaria Department of Mechanical Engineering, Fakulti Kejuruteraan Mekanikal, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Johor, Malaysia
Muhammad Faqhrurrazi Abd Rahman Department of Mechanical Engineering, Fakulti Kejuruteraan Mekanikal, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Johor, Malaysia
Riyadhthusollehan Khairulfuaad Department of Mechanical Engineering, Fakulti Kejuruteraan Mekanikal, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Johor, Malaysia
Balasem Abdulameer Jabbar Department of Mechanical Engineering, Fakulti Kejuruteraan Mekanikal, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Johor, Malaysia

Keywords:

acoustic power level, CFD, dry ice blasting, nozzle geometry, noise emission, optimum

Abstract

The primary disadvantage of dry ice blasting (dib) is high noise emission. The process may reach an alarming sound level of up to 130 dBA (safe noise exposure 85 dBA for eight working hours) at high blasting pressure. Present safety measures rely entirely on administrative control by encapsulating the entire system with sound insulation or using personal protective equipment. This limitation has made this research a significant work by controlling the noise with the engineering approach. Therefore, the research objective is to optimize dib nozzle geometry in term of divergent length on the effect of the noise level and to study the noise development characteristic inside nozzle geometry using CFD analysis. The research study employed a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) method to evaluate the effect of different divergent length on the acoustic power level. The simulation was carried out using density based, standard kepsilon turbulence model and also broadband shock noise model were activated in ANSYS Fluent to monitor Acoustic Power Level of the simulated nozzle. The result shows that the lowest value of the acoustic power level that is responsible for producing the lowest noise emission is 230 mm.