Synthesis of Aluminum Foam and Its Application in reducing Noise Pollution in a Gas Power Plant Under Construction

The noise pollution is among the major challenges of installing the equipment and development of industries. Controlling produced noise in small power plants is a necessity for its development. The present study was conducted to predict the reduction of exhaust noise pollution in a 25 MW gas power plant using the synthesized aluminum foam in a gas power plant under the construction. The noise pollution was measured in a similar gas power plant to predict noise sources in the Tarasht gas power plant. One centimeter thick aluminum foam was synthesized with an average size of about 300 - 500 µm and a porosity of 90%. The impedance tube was used to determine the sound absorption coefficient of aluminum foam. Then, the sound pressure level was predicted by ANSYS software before and after applying aluminum foam in a simulated environment on the exhaust duct wall. Results showed that with the 10 cm of thick insulation layer includes punctuating stainless steel plates, refractory fabric, and closed-cell aluminum foam at high frequency, at least an 8 dB reduction in the noise pollution was obtained the exhaust duct wall compared to the duct wall without the aluminum foam. Aluminum foam can be used as a suitable sound insulator in the power plant industry. Furthermore, it has various advantages over other insulators, such as the resistance to moisture, heat, and vibration attenuation due to noise, proper high rigidity at a low weight, and most importantly, less environmental pollution.