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Mysterious Sound Waves Can Destroy Rockets

Posted by Soulskill on from the scientists-get-the-best-toys dept.

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.'"

7 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Brown noise by rubies · · Score: 5, Funny

    It makes rocket scientists crap their pants!

  2. Good news! by bluephone · · Score: 5, Funny

    This means rocket science is once again hard. You may now resume saying "Well, this isn't rocket science" until they solve this.

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    jX [ Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Einstein ]
  3. I've been a member of slashdot for some time by JeanBaptiste · · Score: 5, Funny

    and the subject line for this article has finally convinced me that cowboy neal is in fact art bell.

  4. I can finally be of use to science by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder if they'd be interested in analyzing the smoking ruins of at least 5 toilet bowls I have personally destroyed with mysterious oscillating rocket powered sound waves.

    --
    Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
    1. Re:I can finally be of use to science by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

      I wonder if they'd be interested in analyzing the smoking ruins of at least 5 toilet bowls I have personally destroyed with mysterious oscillating rocket powered sound waves.

      Oh great, Mr. Goatse himself is now posting on slashdot.

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      Table-ized A.I.
    2. Re:I can finally be of use to science by PitaBred · · Score: 5, Funny

      It scares me that you have devoted that much time thinking about the physics of that.

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      My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
  5. Re:Vibrator?? by compro01 · · Score: 5, Funny

    of course. we've got lots of pictures. =D

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    upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time