Mysterious Sound Waves Can Destroy Rockets 193
Ponca City, We love you writes "Scientists believe that powerful and unstable sound waves, created by energy supplied by the combustion process, were the cause of rocket failures in several US and Russian rockets. They have also observed these mysterious oscillations in other propulsion and power-generating systems such as missiles and gas turbines. Now, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a liquid rocket engine simulator and imaging techniques to help demystify the cause of these explosive sound waves and bring scientists a little closer to being able to understand and prevent them. The team was able to clearly demonstrate that the phenomenon manifests itself in the form of spinning acoustic waves that gain destructive power as they rotate around the rocket's combustion chamber at a rate of 5,000 revolutions per second. Researchers developed a low-pressure combustor to simulate larger rocket engines then used a very-high-speed camera with fiber optic probes to observe the formation and behavior of excited spinning sound waves within the engine. 'This is a very troublesome phenomenon in rockets,' said Professor Ben Zinn. 'These spinning acoustic oscillations destroy engines without anyone fully understanding how these waves are formed. Visualizing this phenomenon brings us a step closer to understanding it.'"
Brown noise (Score:5, Funny)
Good news! (Score:5, Funny)
I've been a member of slashdot for some time (Score:5, Funny)
Vibrator?? (Score:2, Funny)
I can finally be of use to science (Score:5, Funny)
What TFA leaves out (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Brown noise (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Vibrator?? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I can finally be of use to science (Score:5, Funny)
Oh great, Mr. Goatse himself is now posting on slashdot.
Re:Defense System? (Score:5, Funny)
Moha deeb.... rocket go boom
If you play them backwards (Score:4, Funny)
And then... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I can finally be of use to science (Score:5, Funny)
Thats impossible. In order to get a good sound out of that it'd have to be a bit tighter and able to make a good PHHHHHHBBBBBTTT sound. The way Mr. Goatse is now it would just kind of go phooooo. Even then I doubt if there is enough of a seal left to keep it from leaking out long enough to build up sufficient volume and pressure to do anything noticable.
This has got to be joke (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good news! (Score:4, Funny)
Nigel Tufnel Explains (Score:2, Funny)
Powerful sound waves? (Score:4, Funny)
Addicted to bass... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I can finally be of use to science (Score:5, Funny)
Sonic Tools (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Vibrator?? (Score:4, Funny)
>>of course. we've got lots of pictures. =D
Yeah, and I know all about womens emotions and stuff. Like, chicks HATE it when you call them broads.
Re:Brown noise (Score:4, Funny)