The impact of wind direction on flare noise in suburban area: Sound pressure level distribution

Dhany Arifianto, Ainun Nadiroh

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the role of wind direction for predicting sound pressure level distribution of noise emitted from an oil and gas refinery flare to several neighboring villages. The objective of this study is to predict the sound pressure level distribution shift with respect to atmospheric condition to determine whether a village is affected by the noise emitted from a flare or not. A 25-m flare stack was considered to be the sole sound source at the refinery and the other possible sound source was assumed negligible because of the wall enclosed the refinery complex from the villages. We measured the sound pressure level distribution in the area from the flare to 600 m radius that covered about 1,062,500 m 2 and sampled at 425 measurement points continuously for six months. The loudness was divided into two-time zones that covered 24 hours of the refinery operation, namely day and night. We compared the sound decay with respect to atmospheric data during measurement period and with the sound decay equation of ISO 9613-2:1996. The results indicated that the sound decay rate deviated from the ISO 9613-2:1996. This may imply that the measured loudness is no longer originated from the flare alone. Furthermore, the results also showed that the wind direction shifted the loudness distribution of the flare sound. This may mean that the village close to the refinery may have been affected by the flare noise only on certain season with respect to wind speed and direction.

Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 2018
Event47th International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering: Impact of Noise Control Engineering, INTER-NOISE 2018 - Chicago, United States
Duration: 26 Aug 201829 Aug 2018

Conference

Conference47th International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering: Impact of Noise Control Engineering, INTER-NOISE 2018
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityChicago
Period26/08/1829/08/18

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