An investigation into acoustic dipole source calibration methods for turbomachinery sound radiation in reverberant fields

In-situ calibration methods using a single spherical-shaped transmitting hydrophone (idealized as a monopole acoustic source) have traditionally been used for radiated sound measurements of turbomachinery performed in the Garfield Thomas 1.22-m diameter water tunnel located at The Pennsylvania State University's Applied Research Laboratory (ARL Penn State). In this reverberant field, the monopole source containing known transmitting characteristics was used to calibrate acoustic sensors that were either near or far from the source. This method typically works well when the type of source is monopole in nature; however, many acoustics sources can be dipole or quadrupole in nature. In this study we investigated the applicability of using dipole sources in a space such as a well-characterized reverberant tank, and we found through a virtual dipole method that the radiation still appears monopole in the reverberant field. The method was extended for the vibration of a panel (a known dipole source) and once again the monopole assumption for the in-situ calibration for a nearfield hydrophone and conventional reverberant hydrophones remained consistent.