Process and device for attenuating noise caused by a valve during the expansion of a fluid

Claim 1

Throttling apparatus for reducing flowing fluid pressure with attenuation of fluid-expansion-generated noise and cavitation comprising, in combination, a pressure reducing valve having a downstream face; means for attenuating the noise or cavitation generated by the expansion of fluid flowing through said valve to a downstream pipe, said attenuating means comprising an at least partially cone-shaped tubular member provided between said valve and downstream pipe, wire grill, sinuous passage forming means transversely spanning across and fitting within said member beginning substantially at said downstream face of said valve, said wire grill means defining a series of juxtaposed pancakes filling a length of said tubular member, each said pancake composed of a series of perforated plates solidly joined to each other, each said plate formed of a lattice of criss crossed wires, each said lattice comprising a first transverse plane layer of parallel straight wires and a second transverse plane layer of parallel straight wires oriented substantially at right angles to and being welded to said first transverse plane wire layer, the perforated plates of each said pancake being transversely arranged such that their wire lattices are displaced relative to those of the preceding and following plates to form said sinuous passages and whereby the fluid flowing through said tubular member is made to encounter and follow continuously winding paths around each succeeding plate layer, and means for retaining said wire grill pancakes in their said juxtaposed, substantially downstream-valve-face-engaged assembly in said tubular member, the open, continuously winding passages through the mesh forming lattice layers of the successively offset plates of said pancakes causing said fluid to undergo maximum expansion full across the entire cross-section of said pancakes under slightly open as well as under full open settings of said valve.