This ESA-GSTP activity, in partnership with Siemens Industry Software (SISW), aims at the provision of an experimental database for loads acting on launchers during ascent through the earth atmosphere that are created by the interaction of ambient and plume aerodynamics with structural deformations and vibrations.

The work entails the upgrade, commissioning and validation of the VKI acoustic test facility, permitting detailed validation of multi-physical simulation methods for the prediction of launcher payload fairing transparency. A series of experiments that mimic all relevant physical mechanisms that are involved in full-scale applications are performed.

The mechanisms at stake are the excitation of a flexible structure by aerodynamic and acoustic pressure fluctuations, feedback of structure vibrations on the flow field and the transmission of these vibrations towards a closed cavity backing the flexible structure, the payload bay.

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