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Most industrial centrifugal compressors absorb large amounts of power and produce significant head rise. This is accomplished by imparting velocity into the working fluid using impellers and by diffusing the flow downstream of the impeller. As a result, noise is generated by the compressor as an undesirable by-product. The noise signature of a centrifugal compressor is typically dominated by the discrete frequency noise occurring at the blade passing frequency and its harmonics. Excessive noise is not only an environmental hazard but can indicate the poor health of the machine. It can take a considerable amount of resources to address the noise issue of a compressor. Historically, this challenge was addressed by treating the sound transmission path. This involves using acoustic lagging, sound insulation, sound enclosures and ear protection. In the past few years, a new centrifugal compressor noise reduction device was developed to reduce compressor noise. The intent of this device is to attenuate the noise as close as possible to the source. This approach includes mounting duct resonator arrays inside the compressor flow path to minimize the internal acoustic energy. Over the last few years, more than fifty-five centrifugal compressors, both single stage and multi-stage, have been equipped with this technology. This paper presents an application of duct resonator arrays applied to a 2528 PSIG (172 BARG) multi-stage centrifugal compressor on a platform in the North Sea. This compressor is used in a gas export process. Comparative field noise data taken from the compressor with duct resonator arrays and a second compressor, of the same design but without duct resonator arrays, will be shown in this study. The compressor with the duct resonator arrays was commissioned in September 2002 and has been successfully running. The field data presented in the paper will show that noise reduction of 12 dBA can be achieved without the use of traditional noise insulation products
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