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Characterizing Aeroacoustic Loads

AIR FORCE RESEARCH LAB

The AFRL Air Vehicles Directorate developed an accessible and extensive database of dynamic acoustic loads that affect aircraft structure and subsystems. This database will allow engineers to produce aircraft with longer structural life, lower maintenance costs, and increased readiness. During flight, an aircraft is subjected to strong pressure fluctuations caused by airflow and acoustic resonance. The resulting acoustic loads have high sound pressure levels at high frequencies that can damage weapons, crack nearby surfaces and components, and radiate intense noise. With the laboratory-developed database, engineers can assess the effects of this phenomenon and use the knowledge to design aircraft with increased structural life, lower maintenance costs, and increased readiness.

Applications

Military and Commercial Significance:
As part of a Small Business Innovation Research program, AFRL worked with UNISTRY Associates, Inc., to develop a new engineering technique that predicts the loads placed on an aircraft during flight by fluctuations in high-frequency sound pressure. The technique takes data from a variety of sources and compiles it onto one curve. This data makes it easier for engineers to compare and use the information to make better design-performance predictions.
AFRL used this new technique to generate a database that demonstrates how sound pressure varies with changes in frequency for various structural configurations, airflow conditions, and data processing methods. Data on weapons bays and noise generated on pulse-detonated engines makes the database particularly valuable. Currently, the database is available to scientists on a CD-ROM; however, AFRL has developed a commercialization plan to place the database on the Internet.

Provenance

Original: https://dodtechmatch.com/dod/successstories/view.aspx?id=60104
Archived copy: Wayback Machine snapshot

This record was recovered from a public web archive of dodtechmatch.com and is preserved for historical reference. It may be outdated. Not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense. Contact details from the original listing have been withheld.