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8/06/2014 10:13 PM  #1


The science actually works!! (eliminated my exhaust drone)

As many of you already know I fabricated the entire exhaust on my 62 galaxie.  It work well, however I had this really annoying resonance drone in the 2000 RPM range.  The kind of drone that gets louder and louder until I either power up or down out of the 2000 RPM range.  Of course that is right where the engine wants to run  (through shifting) when minimizing RPM but still maintaining power.  I had seen a post here on the forum talking about this same issue.  Some of you said it was the mufflers and others said it was an issue of the exhaust not being set up correctly.  Ultrastang responded with a post pointng the OP to another post on a truck forum that explained why this was happening and exactly how to fix it.

On http://www.performancetrucks.net Smokeshow wrote:

How to build an exhaust resonator tube to eliminate drone
The concept behind drone is pretty simple; nearly everything has a resonant frequency...exhaust systems, electronic RLC circuits, even gravitation has resonance. At peak resonance, the amplitude of the wave at the resonant frequency shoots up to many times higher than normal amplitude. With sound resonance, it pops up when a certain frequency emitted from the engine resonates with the exhaust system and muffler to create that nasty in-cab drone. Unfortunately this resonance often has its peak right in the area where you want to cruise, between 55-75mph.

The solution is a 1/4 wave resonator tube. Simply put, it is a small piece of exhaust pipe with a flat capped end welded nearly perpendicular to the exhaust flow post-muffler that serves to take some of the resonant amplitude and shoot it back into the exhaust pipe out of phase with the resonant frequency to bring down the amplitude. If you've ever taken a physics class, this is in the 'standing wave dynamics' chapter. Mufflers are designed to bring down the amplitude or volume of the exhaust note at all RPMs, but they typically can't do anything about resonance. Corsa mufflers have a built-in resonator that works decent, but only with the entire exhaust kit. Sometimes you'll run across a setup that drones at an RPM the Corsa muffler and exhaust wasn't designed to combat, so theres a chance the internal resonator will do little to no good.

Things you need to know to build the resonator:

-RPM that drone occurs at
-Number of cylinders (engines with simultaneous firing cylinders like the SRT-10 truck will divide this number by two)

You will also need to know the speed of sound. It varies with temperature, but is generally accepted to be 343m/s.

Say your V8 truck resonates at 2000 rpms, right at cruising speed. You'll need to find the frequency of the drone. Units here are pulses per second, or Hertz.

f = RPM * pulses/rev * (1/60)

f = 2000 rev/min * 4 pulses/rev * (1/60)

f = 133.34 pulses/second = 133.34Hz

At 2000 rpms, your V8 fires 4 times per revolution. RPM is in minutes, so divide by 60 to reduce to seconds. Now you need to find the length of the wave at the frequency you just calculated. Wavelength is denoted by lambda (λ), units are meters.

λ = v/f = speed of sound / frequency

λ = (343m/s)/(133.34Hz)

λ = 2.572 meters

This gives you the length of a full sound wave. The idea here is to reintroduce a sound wave into the exhaust that is 180° out of phase with your drone frequency. To do this, you build your resonator tube at exactly one-fourth the length of the resonant wave. By the time the sound wave enters the resonator tube, bounces off the end and re-enters the exhaust stream, the amplitude is exactly opposite of the drone frequency and will lower or eliminate the volume of the drone.

Dividing the wavelength by 4 gives you 0.643m, or about 2.1 feet. Its long and kind of awkward, but someone who has had to deal with a droning truck on a road trip will likely sacrifice the space to make it fit

The diameter of the tube you'd need is debatable, as I haven't tried different sizes of tubing. When I built mine, I took a shot in the dark and went with 2" pipe on my 3" exhaust. It gives about half the surface area at the end of the tube to bounce off of. I assume a larger resonator tube would allow more sound to bounce back and cancel more of the drone noise. However, space is somewhat limited when you are sending an exhaust pipe off of your existing pipe at some odd angle. You can bend the resonator tube to some extent, but it needs to be mandrel bent, not more than one bend or more than ~30°. If the bend is too sharp, the sound will bounce back too early and the resonator will work poorly or won't work at all. 

The reason for this is simply the fact that sound waves do not necessarily 'flow' with whatever medium they are traveling in. Sound is a pressure wave, and any obstacle (bends) will return the wave prematurely. To minimize 'obstacles' in the resonator tube, the straighter it is, the better it will work. The intent is not to randomly scatter the sound wave as a radius will tend to do, but to send it back to the exhaust precisely when it is needed.

So, you just need to mock up your resonator tube in a place that it will fit, cut a hole into the exhaust pipe and weld the tube to it and enjoy a drone-free ride.

Armed with this info I ordered a U shaped piece of 1.75" mandrel bent tubing and fabbed up a set of pipes.  The result is a drone free exhaust.  I love science!!  I am working on another project to make my own cable controlled exhaust cut outs and I can probably put them on the ends of these pipes, but that is a project for another time.  



 


If it isn't broken...modify it anyway! http://www.DazeCars.com https://galaxieforum.boardhost.com
 

8/06/2014 10:18 PM  #2


Re: The science actually works!! (eliminated my exhaust drone)

Trying to read all that makes my head hurt.  I'm glad it worked out.



 


Volvo!
 

8/06/2014 11:43 PM  #3


Re: The science actually works!! (eliminated my exhaust drone)

That's pretty interesting.  Makes you wonder why you don't see this more on factory rides.  I really need to get a welder so that I can do these sorts of jobs on my own!

 

8/07/2014 6:00 AM  #4


Re: The science actually works!! (eliminated my exhaust drone)

If memory serves me correct when the Ford Engineers designed the newer Boss 302 exhaust, the Quad system they designed was designed specefically for a certain sound.  Looking at Daze's pics reminded me of pics I saw of that system

 

 

8/07/2014 6:39 AM  #5


Re: The science actually works!! (eliminated my exhaust drone)

Science at work, pretty cool.


If this forum can't fix it, it isn't broke.
 

8/07/2014 3:55 PM  #6


Re: The science actually works!! (eliminated my exhaust drone)

Not science, it's witchcraft or the devil's work..


John

 

8/07/2014 6:41 PM  #7


Re: The science actually works!! (eliminated my exhaust drone)

Makes perfect sense(I took an entire physics course on Wave Motion). There should also be an optimum location to mount the damper tubes if there is a possibility of standing waves, but figguring that out at home would require moving the damper attachment point to find the optimum point. None of us hobbyists is going to go through that trouble. Congrats Daze on your successful solution to your droning problem.

 

8/07/2014 10:09 PM  #8


Re: The science actually works!! (eliminated my exhaust drone)

Hornman wrote:

There should also be an optimum location to mount the damper tubes

Yes, its where ever you have the room My tubes are 25" long and I new I had to mount them after the X pipe so in my case there was really only one place to put them  
 


If it isn't broken...modify it anyway! http://www.DazeCars.com https://galaxieforum.boardhost.com
     Thread Starter
 

8/08/2014 12:19 PM  #9


Re: The science actually works!! (eliminated my exhaust drone)

I hate it when reality interferes with theory.

 

8/08/2014 3:42 PM  #10


Re: The science actually works!! (eliminated my exhaust drone)

Nice work, Daze!   


Money you enjoy wasting is NOT wasted money... unless your wife finds out.
 

10/26/2017 7:27 PM  #11


Re: The science actually works!! (eliminated my exhaust drone)

This Is Brilliant.......one question though, is the drone RPM value when the drone begins, or when Its at its Loudest??

 

10/26/2017 9:42 PM  #12


Re: The science actually works!! (eliminated my exhaust drone)

VR15GT wrote:

This Is Brilliant.......one question though, is the drone RPM value when the drone begins, or when Its at its Loudest??

Its the RPM where it builds on it self.  there is a sweet spot where it seams like the drone would continue to get louder and louder with out changing RPM  that is the all important #.  So I guess the answer to to your question is yes its at the loudest point
 


If it isn't broken...modify it anyway! http://www.DazeCars.com https://galaxieforum.boardhost.com
     Thread Starter
 

10/27/2017 5:37 PM  #13


Re: The science actually works!! (eliminated my exhaust drone)

Thank you Daze! I think some folks fail to appreciate how much work you've done for us  in laying this out. It's clear you've spent hours researching and digesting ideas to come up with understanding. And after all that work, you chose to document what you've learned and share that with us for free! So many that frequent this forum share with the masss. Thanks to all of you!

In all sincerity,

Lance

 

Board footera


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