Predicting transmission of shaped sonic booms into a residential house structure.

Human perception of sonic booms is a major impediment to commercial supersonic flight. Shaping, which reduces the audible shock waves of a boom, can make outdoor perception of booms acceptable. Perception of sonic booms experienced indoors is of concern, and it is not yet established whether shaped booms offer benefit to indoor listeners. A better understanding of the transmission of shaped booms into building structures is needed. In the authors' earlier work the vibration response of house elements subjected to different sonic boom wave shapes was evaluated using a single degree of freedom model. This paper expands that approach with a modal analysis model. The acceleration of building elements and the resulting sound pressure inside a room are computed in the time and frequency domains. Analytical results are compared with experimental data measured by NASA during sonic boom tests conducted at Edwards Air Force Base in 2007. The effects of wave signature parameters on transmission are studied to evaluate the advantages of various kinds of minimized boom shapes.

The role of nonlinear effects in the propagation of noise from high-power jet aircraft.

To address the question of the role of nonlinear effects in the propagation of noise radiated by high-power jet aircraft, extensive measurements were made of the F-22A Raptor during static engine run-ups. Data were acquired at low-, intermediate-, and high-thrust engine settings with microphones located 23-305 m from the aircraft along several angles. Comparisons between the results of a generalized-Burgers-equation-based nonlinear propagation model and the measurements yield favorable agreement, whereas application of a linear propagation model results in spectral predictions that are much too low at high frequencies. The results and analysis show that significant nonlinear propagation effects occur for even intermediate-thrust engine conditions and at angles well away from the peak radiation angle. This suggests that these effects are likely to be common in the propagation of noise radiated by high-power aircraft.