FORMULATION OF A FIELD DATA BASED MODEL TO ESTIMATE THE NOISE LEVEL IN A DIESEL GENERATOR SET WITH ACOUSTIC ENCLOSURE

In power starved India, millions of diesel generator (DG) sets working to meet the shortage of industrial and commercial units now add up to cumulative capacity of 90000 MW. This figure is nearly equal to India’s total installed power capacity just before a decade and about 36% of installed total generator set capacity. The typical generation cost is about 15 Rs. Per unit (Kwhr) for midsize genset with diesel cost about 50Rs per liter. It is observed that diesel generator sets are noisy and cause health hazards such as permanent hearing loss, physiological traumas, stress etc. In order to avoid health risks, Central Pollution control Board (CPCB) the maximum permissible sound pressure level for new DG set with rated capacity up to 1000KVA, should be less than 75dB(A) at a one meter from enclosure surface. For noise control in DG set, passive noise control method with an acoustic enclosure with inner surface covered with sound absorbing material is used. The canopy absorbs noise and reduced the noise level to a permissible limit.