Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF) - Kill yourself by listening to music

 













"In the photo above, Engineer Kees van Zijtveldt is standing beside the largest sound horn of ESA’s Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF), capable of subjecting satellites to the same noise a launcher produces as it takes off and flies through the atmosphere.
It is the most powerful sound system in Europe ? but no human being could survive hearing it at maximum output.

LEAF is an integral part of ESA?s ESTEC Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, a collection of spaceflight simulation facilities under a single roof. One wall of the chamber, which stands 11 m wide by 9 m deep and 16.4 m high, is embedded with a set of enormous sound horns. Nitrogen shot through the horns can produce a range of noise up to more than 154 decibels, like standing close to multiple jets taking off.
The LEAF includes safety features to ensure that its lethal audio capabilities are not tested. It can operate only once all the doors are closed. Steel-reinforced concrete walls safely contain its noise, coated with epoxy resin to reflect noise to produce a uniform sound field within the chamber. The chamber itself is supported on rubber bearing pads to isolate it from its surroundings."

Source: http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2014/01/31/absurdly-loud-sounds-system-would-kill-you-if-you-heard-it/

"The Large European Acoustic Facility is used to perform acoustic noise tests on spacecrafts and their external payloads to assure that no damage will occur during the rocket launch. The facility simulates realistic spectral noise pressure levels comparable of those generated by the launcher engines and air flow passing along the launcher faring. The automatic control system offers a great variety of selectable noise levels, spectral shapes and test durations to meet user requirements also from outside space industry.

The noise generation system consists of four different horns with cut-off frequencies of 25Hz, 35Hz, 80Hz and 160Hz plus three high frequency generators: All together allowing acoustic excitation in the frequency range from 25Hz to 10kHz and an overall noise level of 155dBL. Acceleration measurement channels can be recorded by a mobile data handling system with up to 512 measurement channels."

Source: http://www.european-test-services.net/services-mechanical-Large-Acoustic.html