New Methods for Efficient Mission Assurance Dynamics Testing

The expanding aerospace launch and space vehicle industry is sending a wide range of space vehicle topologies and architectures to space. With the growing number of programs comes increased pressure on cost and schedule risks to delivery requirements. Aerospace companies need more flexible and capable dynamic testing methods that reduce these risks while providing the requisite physical insight into critical space vehicle system dynamics. Recent advancements in high-intensity acoustic devices are enabling new approaches to required aerospace mission assurance dynamic testing programs. The acoustic fields generated by these devices couple significant energy into test articles thereby enabling acoustic qualification, modal survey, and certain forms of vibration testing. The advantages of dynamic testing using acoustic devices include non-contact excitation that can support multiple dynamic tests in a single configuration. This paper will review these new acoustic device capabilities and their growing impact on aerospace dynamic test programs.