Structural Acoustics In-Air Facility

FUNCTION: Supports experimental research where broadband acoustic radiation, reflection, transmission, and surface vibration measurements are required. Typically, ultrahigh-precision, highly spatially sampled measurements are conducted on scaled submarine structures, satellite payload fairings, active and passive material systems for sound control, and new transducer and sensor systems.DESCRIPTION: The large, acoustically treated facility is 50 ft × 40 ft × 38 ft high. The laboratory is instrumented with precise acoustic and vibration measurement systems. These include large workspace robotic scanners capable of generating nearfield acoustic holography (NAH) radiation, reflection, and transmission databases. In addition, three-axis laser vibrometers are used to generate very highly sampled surface vibration maps.INSTRUMENTATION: Broadband source/receiver systems; large workspace (3D) robotic scanners for NAH; scanning laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV); multiple workstations to support acquisition, analysis, calculations, and visualization; and structural acoustic codes: SARA2D, SARA3D, ANSYS, NISA, FEMLAB, and SONAX.