Dassault Aviation Falcon 8X noise certification

Dassault Aviation has performed noise certification tests on their new Falcon 8X business jet, using an acoustic data acquisition and analysis system from Brüel & Kjær.

Exterior aircraft noise certification tests are required by aviation regulators. The tests establish certified aircraft Effective Perceived Noise Levels (EPNLs) for each of the flight conditions: approach, flyover and sideline.

The Brüel & Kjær system uses three GPS-synchronized data acquisition stations that are distributed around the test area. They communicate via WiFi, and are controlled from a central monitoring station.

Each remote location measures and records noise and has a webcam, and one station monitors weather data. The central monitoring station controls the data acquisition, uploads data, interfaces to flight-track data and layered weather data, and calculates results.

The system is based on the modular Brüel & Kjær PULSE LAN-XI data acquisition hardware, which provides the measurement data for the official calculation of EPNL levels. This data is corrected, 1/3rd octave noise measurements compliant with the requirements for aircraft noise certification measurements in accordance with ICAO Annex 16, Volume I, amendment 9.

Brüel & Kjær’s system can also compute EPNL values including background noise, flight track and weather corrections for test validation and management of the tests. While these calculations are not usable for ICAO compliant certification like the 1/3rd octave noise measurement data is, they help testers ascertain their data is valid before ending the test.

The system can also calculate intermediate results such as OAL, PNL, PNL Tmax, PNLT curve and 10 dB down points, which are used during aircraft development testing to ensure designs are on target to meet their requirements.

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