Skylab vibroacoustic test program

Vibroacoustic testing was performed on the orbital workshop dynamic test article and the payload assembly, the two major elements of the Skylab payload. The testing was conducted on each of the Skylab elements separately in the reverberation chamber at the Johnson Space Center. The two test configurations were high fidelity flight article simulations. The testing was conducted in two phases; in the first phase, acoustic tests were performed at levels simulating the lift-off and atmospheric flight acoustic criteria. In the second phase, low frequency sinusoidal vibration tests were conducted to obtain modal response data. The objectives of the Skylab vibroacoustic test program were to: verify the vibration design and test criteria; qualify selected flight components to the vibroacoustic criteria; and verify analytical models used for dynamic load analyses. This paper describes the vibroacoustic testing and discusses the results.