A New Anechoic Facility for Supersonic Hot Jet Noise Research at Lockheed-Georgia

Abstract

Much confusion about jet noise has come about as a direct result of inadequate facilities and insufficient knowledge and control of test conditions, in many cases giving rise to completely erroneous conclusions. The facility described here has been carefully designed, accounting for the shortcomings of other facilities and being guided by the stringent demands of ongoing jet noise research at Lockheed. The design goal was the capability of testing model jets up to 2000°F at pressure ratios as high as 8, in a free-field environment anechoic at all frequencies above 200 Hz. A comprehensive series of flow visualization and temperature mapping experiments in a one-sixth scale-model anechoic room was conducted. The results dictated the design of the exhaust collector/muffler to provide entrainment and room cooling air in the quantities demanded by the jet operating conditions. In order to optimize the choice of material and anechoic wedge design to achieve the 200-Hz requirement, a special impedance tube was used extensively in performance evaluations. Some features of the facility are (1) an exhaust collector providing air in quantities dictated by the particular jet operating condition with no special forced-air injection or fan installation and (2) a “cherry-picker” crane used to gain access to instrumentation, etc., for maintenance, calibration, and setup, thus eliminating the need for access platforms, etc. The crane is stowed by remote control under an anechoic cover during all test operations. The superior performance of the room is described by intensity/distance plots obtained from a fixed loudspeaker source and moving microphone installation.