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The various mechanisms which contribute to sound absorption in the atmosphere are identified and a technique for computing the contribution from each is presented. The similarities between sound absorption, laser fluorescence measurements, and the opto-acoustic effect are discussed. Finally, experimental sound absorption results are compared to predictions to test the microscopic energy transfer approach.
Theories regarding the radiation of sound are reviewed and the implementation in strategies for explaining or measuring the sound produced by practical strucutres are discussed. Particular attention is given to those aspects that relate to the determination of the relative amounts of sound generated by various parts of a machine or structure, which can be very useful information for noise reduction efforts.
The radiation of sound from vibrating cylindrical beams is analyzed based on the frequency of the beam vibrations and the physical characteristics of the beam and its surroundings. A statistical analysis of random beam vibrations allows this result to be independent of the boundary conditions at the ends of the beam. The acoustic power radiated by the beam can be determined from a knowledge of the frequency band vibration data without a knowledge of the individual modal vibration amplitudes. A practical example of the usefulness of this technique is provided by the application of the theoretical calculations to the prediction of the octave band acoustic power output of the picking sticks of an automatic textile loom. Calculations are made of the expected octave band sound pressure levels based on measured acceleration data. These theoretical levels are subsequently compared with actual sound pressure level measurements of loom noise.
Temperature and horizontal winds in the 30 to 90 km altitude range of the upper atmosphere, were determined by acoustic grenade soundings conducted at Wallops Island, Virginia and Kourou, French Guiana. Field support provided at these locations included deployment of the large area microphone system, supervision, maintenance and operation of sound ranging stations; and coordination of activities. Data analysis efforts included the analysis of field data to determine upper atmospheric meteorological parameters. Profiles for upper atmospheric temperature, wind and density are provided in plots and tables for each of the acoustic grenade soundings conducted during the contract period. Research efforts were directed toward a systematic comparison of temperature data from acoustic grenade with other meteorological sensor probes in the upper atmosphere.
The linearized equations describing the propagation of sound in variable area ducts containing flow are shown to be singular when the duct mean flow is sonic. The singularity is removed when previously ignored nonlinear terms are retained. The results of a numerical study, for the case of plane waves propagating in a one-dimensional converging-diverging duct, show that the sound field is adequately described by the linearized equations only when the axial mean flow Mach number at the duct throat M sub th 0.6. For M sub th 0.6, the numerical results showed that acoustic energy flux was not conserved. An attempt was made to extend the study to include the nonlinear behavior of the sound field. Meaningful results were not obtained due, primarily, to numerical difficulties.
Swirling flow in an axisymmetric duct can support vorticity waves propagating parallel to the axis of the duct. When the cross-sectional area of the duct changes a portion of the wave energy is scattered into secondary vorticity and sound waves. Thus the swirling flow in the jet pipe of an aeroengine provides a mechanism whereby disturbances produced by unsteady combustion or turbine blading can be propagated along the pipe and subsequently scattered into aerodynamic sound. In this paper a linearized model of this process is examined for low Mach number swirling flow in a duct of infinite extent. It is shown that the amplitude of the scattered acoustic pressure waves is proportional to the product of the characteristic swirl velocity and the perturbation velocity of the vorticity wave. The sound produced in this way may therefore be of more significance than that generated by vorticity fluctuations in the absence of swirl, for which the acoustic pressure is proportional to the square of the perturbation velocity. The results of the analysis are discussed in relation to the problem of excess jet noise.
Equipment had been constructed for measuring sound absorption in the frequency range from 4 to 100 kHz in a large tube 25.4 cm in diameter and 4.8-m long. The technique employs a large moveable solid-dielectric capacitance transducer that completely fills the tube cross section and generates pulses of plane waves. An identical transducer terminates the other end of the tube and serves as a microphone to detect and reflect the sound pulses. Measurements in argon, nitrogen, and air indicate that the attenuation of the sound pulses differs by less than 1% from values calculated for the zero-order mode for frequencies up to 44 times the cutoff frequency for the first 'nonplane' mode. Above that frequency, the measured values are less than those predicted by theory by an amount that is approximately proportional to the wavelength to the -3.1 power. In a smaller tube of similar construction, the high-frequency deviation from theory is absent.
The Ribner formulation of the generation of aerodynamic sound is coupled with predictions of second-order velocity correlations and integral scale to estimate the sound radiated from several complicated jet flows. In particular, it is shown that the sound radiated from a cold swirling jet is greater than from its nonswirling equal thrust counterpart. The noise radiated from the flow field of a multitube suppressor was estimated and compared with an equal thrust diameter Gaussian jet. It is shown that the multitube concept is indeed quieter.
The impact of DST 5 and DST 6 satellite sounding data on mid-range forecasting was studied. The GISS temperature sounding technique, the GISS time-continuous four-dimensional assimilation procedure based on optimal statistical analysis, the GISS forecast model, and the verification techniques developed, including impact on local precipitation forecasts are described. It is found that the impact of sounding data was substantial and beneficial for the winter test period, Jan. 29 - Feb. 21. 1976. Forecasts started from initial state obtained with the aid of satellite data showed a mean improvement of about 4 points in the 48 and 772 hours Sub 1 scores as verified over North America and Europe. This corresponds to an 8 to 12 hour forecast improvement in the forecast range at 48 hours. An automated local precipitation forecast model applied to 128 cities in the United States showed on an average 15% improvement when satellite data was used for numerical forecasts. The improvement was 75% in the midwest.
The importance of satellite-derived soundings on National Meteorological Center weather analysis and forecast was studied by comparing summertime DST (Aug. 18-Sept. 4, 1975) forecasts generated by analyses with and without both the operational VTPR soundings from NOAA-4 and the experimental soundings derived from the infrared and microwave instruments aboard Nimbus-6. Objective and subjective procedures, including evaluation of standard skill scores and judgment by skilled synopticians, was used to evaluate the importance of satellite data. The investigation shows that satellite data do not aid numerical weather prediction in the Northern Hemisphere.
Loudness (in sones) and loudness level (in phons) of any sound that is steady for tenths of second can be calculated using computer program derived from new operational theory of loudness. Theory is constructed from psychoacoustic and physiological data on mammalian (monkey) auditory systems. Computer program permits prediction of loudness of any steady sound including, for example, transportation noises, machinery noises, and other environmental noises, with possible additional applications to broadcasting, sound reproduction, establishment and enforcement of noise laws.
The excitation of instability waves in a plane compressible shear layer by sound waves is studied. The problem is formulated mathematically as an inhomogeneous boundary-value problem. A general solution for abitrary incident sound wave is found by first constructing the Green's function of the problem. Numerical values of the coupling constants between incident sound waves and excited instability waves for a range of flow Mach number are calculated. The effect of the angle of incidence in the case of a beam of acoustic waves is analyzed. It is found that for moderate subsonic Mach numbers a narrow beam aiming at an angle between 50 to 80 deg to the flow direction is most effective in exciting instability waves.
Enhancement and editing of high-density cloud motion wind assessments and research satellite soundings have been necessary to improve the quality of data used in The Global Weather Experiment. Editing operations are conducted by a man-computer interactive data access system. Editing will focus on such inputs as non-US satellite data, NOAA operational sounding and wind data sets, wind data from the Indian Ocean satellite, dropwindsonde data, and tropical mesoscale wind data. Improved techniques for deriving cloud heights and higher resolution sounding in meteorologically active areas are principal parts of the data enhancement program.
A theoretical model is presented of the effects of forward velocity of an aircraft at arbitrary subsonic speed on sound radiated from convecting monopole and dipole sources embedded in the jet flow. It is found that with increasing forward velocity there is a steadily increasing amplification (over the static case) of the sound radiated into the forward arc and a large reduction of the sound which is radiated into the rearward arc. The same trend is also shown to result when there is a reduction in the exhaust velocity, with, however, a further rise in amplification in the forward quadrant and a drop in attenuation in the aft quadrant.
The effect of the duration of jet aircraft flyover sounds on humans and the annoyance factor are examined. A nine point numerical category scaling technique is utilized for the study. Changes in the spectral characteristics of aircraft sounds caused by atmospheric attenuation are discussed. The effect of Doppler shifts using aircraft noises with minimal pure tone content is reported. The spectral content of sounds independent of duration and Doppler shift are examined by analysis of variance.
Seven atmospheric variability experiments (AVE), two atmospheric variability and severe storms experiments (AVSSE), and six atmospheric variability experiment-severe environmental storm and mesoscale experiments (AVE-SESAME) conducted by NASA are discussed. The dates, observation times, and data reports for each of the experiments for which data was processed are listed. The AVE experiments were conducted primarily to study atmospheric variability with emphasis on spatial and temporal in atmospheric structure that can be detected from soundings taken at 3 hr intervals but not seen in soundings taken at 12 hr intervals. The AVSSE experiments were conducted to study atmospheric structure and variability associated with severe storms combining both rawinsonde and aircraft data to provide information on near storm environments. The method of processing is discussed, estimates of the rms errors in the data are presented, an example of contact data is given, and soundings are listed which exhibited abnormal characteristics.
The key features of the sounding software laboratory being installed on the VAS Processor at NASA/GSFC are outlined. Emphasis is on the support data and personal guidance that a meteorological researcher must provide to attune a physically modeled VAS sounding to his experiment. The fundamental aim of the sounding-support effort is to provide a system which makes use of: radiation transfer models based upon laboratory data, analytic inversion schemes, human guidance for quality control, statistically conditioned retrieval methods, and current ancillary data.
In this paper, Goddard's problem of maximizing the final altitude of a sounding rocket (a singular problem of optimal control) is analyzed using singular perturbation methods. The problem is first cast in singular perturbation form and then solved to zero order by adding boundary-layer corrections to the reduced solution. For a quadratic drag law, a closed-form solution is obtained, although consideration of a numerical example indicates that this solution is not useful for practical sounding rockets. However, use of state variable transformations allows a very accurate numerical approximation to be constructed. It is concluded that application of singular perturbation methods to the well-known sounding rocket problem indicates that these methods may have utility in dealing with singular problems of optimal control.