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 A new commercially available underwater acoustics pressure vessel facility is now open for business in the UK at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Based in Teddington, SW London, NPL is the UK's national standards laboratory, and has an international reputation for independent calibration, test and verification of acoustical devices. Its new purpose-built acoustic pressure vessel facility will provide the vital measurements needed by manufacturers of sonar equipment used in the oil and gas, oceanographic and defence industries. 
The facility features a 7.5-metre long, 100-tonne, steel pressure vessel that is acoustically lined with access ports capable of accepting devices up to 0.84 metre diameter. It is designed for acoustic testing of underwater acoustical devices over the frequency range 1 kHz to 2 MHz, and under simulated ocean conditions to a depth of 700 metres.Permanent The pressure vessel is owned by the UK's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), and is provided on permanent loan to the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and operated at NPL. It was acquired from the Underwater Sound Reference Division in Orlando, Florida, and will now form an essential part of the UK National Measurement System for underwater acoustics. "Manufacturers and defence contractors face increasing demands from customers and quality assurance regimes to establish the acoustical performance of complex state-of-the-art devices used for deepwater operations at temperatures well away from ambient conditions," says NPL. "Recognising these commercial and quality assurance trends, NPL's experienced acousticians are developing a facility with a test capability that will contribute significantly to reducing the risk of acoustical failure in new devices and the costs associated with vessel hire and sea trials. Applications would be at design, development and proof-of-principle stage, as well as production type testing and sampling. "Future testing undertaken over a range of hydrostatic pressures and temperatures would include absolute acoustic measurements of transducers, projectors and receivers, the determination of material properties, beam forming characteristics, array performance, model simulations and pressure integrity testing. Measurement standards will be developed to provide industry with traceable calibrations." Diameter The pressure vessel builds on established facilities at NPL that include a large, 5.5-metre diameter and 5-metre deep, open test tank with a high-precision positioning system for characterisation of acoustics fields generated by high frequency sonar systems. Details - NPL, Tel: +44 (0)20 8943 6154, Fax: +44 (0)20 8943 6161, Email: roy.prestion@npl.co.uk |
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