Interior fairing noise is an important consideration for payload launch survivability and has been studied extensively since the beginning of the space program. This work presents acoustic transmission studies conducted by the Air Force Research Laboratory, Space Vehicles Directorate, on a composite, grid-stiffened, Minotaur payload fairing. These tests were performed in an acoustics laboratory and examined the effects of acoustic flanking paths, the thermal protection system, and melamine-type acoustic blanket ...
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is pursuing an innovative composite structure design called chamber core for constructing launch vehicle payload fairings. A composite chamber core fairing consists of many axial tubes sandwiched between face sheets, tubes that can be used as acoustic dampers to reduce low-frequency interior noise with virtually no added mass. This paper presents the results of experimental studies of noise transmission through a 1.51 m diameter ...
The potential for noise mitigation in composite Chamber Core fairings is investigated by using the walls of the fairing structure itself as acoustic resonators. This is the first documented application of long cylindrical tube-shaped resonators for fairing noise control. The theory and modeling of tube-shaped resonators for controlling fairing acoustic resonances is presented. The potential for noise mitigation in composite Chamber Core fairing using the walls of the fairing structure ...
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