Circulation pumps as structure-borne sound sources: emission to semi-infinite pipe systems

Circulation pumps are an important source of noise from domestic central heating systems. Pumps can generate airborne, liquid-borne and structure-borne sound and although standards exist for airborne and liquid-borne sources, none do for structure-borne sources. This is primarily because the structure-borne acoustic power delivered by the pump not only depends on the pump but also on the connected receiving system, which can be a complicated combination of pipes, valves and radiators. Also pumps deliver liquid-borne and structure-borne acoustic power simultaneously and their relative contributions to the sound radiated from the pipe system is not obviously obtainable. The approach proposed is to estimate the emission from the pump into semi-infinite pipes of material and cross-section typical of heating systems. Then to estimate the ‘mixing’ effect of bends, joints and other pipe discontinuities, due to wave mode conversion, as described in a companion paper. In the present paper, it is demonstrated that the structure-borne power can be calculated from the measured free velocity and mobility of the pump for each component of vibration and from receiver mobilities of idealized pipe systems. The structure-borne power is compared with the liquid-borne power measured directly by intensimetry.