The Acoustic Test Facility (ATF) was established under a CSIR, NAL-ISRO MoU , in the year 1986. The 1100 cu.m. reverberation chamber based facility was designed by NAL. An Acoustic facility simulates, the fluctuating sound pressure field experienced by the payload/launch vehicle during lift off and atmospheric flight in a reverberation chamber. Rocket blast creates large sound pressure: 100,000 times most powerful than normal speech. This can damage the payload and launch vehicle subsystems. The facility is capable of providing acoustic qualification of all of ISRO’s space bound hardware with spectra confirming to MIL-STD 810G standards.

Expertise

• ATF is a national test facility for acoustic environment qualification testing of satellites, launch vehicles stages and their subsystems and can provide acoustic qualification services for sensitive and space bound hardware.
• ATF provides noise and vibration studies for automobile and electronic equipment manufacturers.
• ATF has expertise in turnkey design, development and commissioning of acoustic test facilities for space craft and launch vehicle testing and has designed, built and commissioned a 1500 cu.m facility for the ISRO at Bangalore.

Facility Features

• 1100 cu.m Reverberation Chamber in which a maximum sound pressure level of 157 dB can be generated.
• Diffused sound pressure level distribution well within +/- 1dB in central 10 percent volume inside the Reverberation Chamber.
• Free standing, 120 tonnes sliding concrete door for reverberation chamber with novel inflatable seal design.
• Frequency Range: (25-10,000 Hz).
• Acoustic Measurement: 16 channels.
• Vibration Measurements: 192 channels.
• Strain measurement: 16 channels.
• ATF has completed more than 3000 acoustic blow downs and tested more than 100 spacecraft, launch vehicles and its sub systems till date.