Adventures in High Intensity Acoustic Testing: a Loudspeaker System for Small-Scale Tests

Hargreaves, Jonathan; Hipperson, James; Wong-McSweeney, Daniel; O'Doherty, Nathan

Abstract

In the space and aerospace industry, there is a need to perform High Intensity Acoustic Testing (HIAT). This aims to recreate in the laboratory, for the purpose of qualification testing, the extreme acoustic environments that designs must survive in use, for example, that a satellite can withstand the noise of rocket launch and reach orbit without damage. Traditionally such tests have been performed in giant reverberation chambers, but since the mid-1990s there has been growing interest in using loudspeakers to generate the sound field and there are a small number of specialist companies who supply such – often very large – systems commercially. This paper reports a case study on the delivery of a small-scale HIAT capability in the commercial test labs of the University of Salford, in collaboration with Funktion One Research Ltd. It will discuss the design and capabilities of the system, including its control and health monitoring.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: Reproduced Sound 2023
• Start Date: Nov 14, 2023
• End Date: Nov 16, 2023
• Acceptance Date: Oct 13, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Nov 15, 2023
• Publication Date: Nov 15, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jan 23, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 26, 2024
• Publisher: Institute of Acoustics
• Volume: 45
• Pages: 12
• Series Title: Proceedings of Reproduced Sound
• ISBN: 9781906913472
• Publisher URL: https://www.ioa.org.uk/catalogue/paper/adventures-high-intensity-acoustic-testing-loudspeaker-system-small-scale-tests