Seeing Sound - Image Analysis of the Lift-off Acoustic Field

A launch vehicle and its launch facilities are subjected to intense acoustic loads generated by the vehicle's propulsion system. The vehicle, its payload, and facilities must be designed to withstand these loads to ensure mission safety and success. Accurately accounting for the acoustic environment early in the design phase of a new launch vehicle is a high priority. Governments and aerospace entities expend significant resources investigating launch acoustics using a combination of predictive models, full-scale and subscale tests, and test flights. Sensors that acquire acoustic data are deployed over a limited geometry and do not sample the full three-dimensional volume exposed to the acoustic field. Launch imagery samples that three-dimensional volume. Under appropriate conditions, rapidly varying condensation features are generated by the lift-off acoustic field. A software tool will be developed to determine the three-dimensional structure of the field from imagery of these acoustically-induced features. This unique data will be compared to model predictions and will serve to either validate those models or inspire modifications to those models. Improving predictive models contributes to a more reliable and efficient design process for new launch vehicle propulsion systems, and thus reduces associated design costs. Techniques and procedures will be developed and evaluated during the Phase I effort and will be implemented into a software tool during the Phase II effort.

1) Use the tool to validate, or inspire revision(s) to, the acoustic models that NASA uses to design new launch vehicle propulsion systems. Design of the propulsion system for NASA's future heavy lift Space Launch System would benefit from improved acoustic models. 2) Use the tool to validate, or inspire revision(s) to, computational fluid dynamic models. These models serve the propulsion system design process by providing insights into the exhaust flow and flow interactions. 3) Contribute to a more complete understanding of launch acoustics by investigating the lift-off acoustic field of previous NASA launches using archival imagery.

1) Use of the tool to validate, or inspire revision(s) to, the acoustic models employed by non-NASA entities including commercial and military space launch service providers. 2) Use the tool to validate, or inspire revision(s) to, computational fluid dynamic models. These models serve the non-NASA propulsion system design process by providing insights into the exhaust flow and flow interactions. 3) Contribute to a more complete understanding of launch acoustics by investigating the lift-off acoustic field of previous, current, and future non-NASA launches.

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