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To: LibWhacker
Anyone knows what this may be? Apart from a massive structure made of pure awesome, I mean.

The picture shows the ends of the two engine test stand "exhaust" pipes. The pipes are visible in the picture just above your mystery picture. When a rocket engine is test fired the exhaust is routed down a pipe which ends in a circular chamber about 250 feet in diameter. The chamber contains a pool of water and has a large vertical stack extending upward which is visible in the exterior shots of the complex. The mystery picture shows the ends of the two large exhaust pipes which were terminated in a cluster of smaller diameter pipes some of which have rectangular baffles plates fixed to the ends of the circular sections. This approach is similar to the "mufflers" used on the turbojet engines in the 707 era (the mufflers were no longer required once fan-jet engines were developed.) The center column is the bottom of the vertical stack.

The entire structure is intended to function as a muffler to slow down and cool the rocket exhaust before discharging it to the open air. The facility appears to be in a suburb of Moscow and even if the state run enterprise didn't much care if the average citizen was deafened by the roar of the engine test, the commissars living and working within earshot probably did and were in a position to make an issue of the noise.

Saturn 5 launches generated over 200dB sound pressure level at the pad and would modulate your voice if you tried to talk some five miles away. The Russian engines tested at this facility were (are?) in the same class as the Saturn first stage engines and would be very bad for the neighborhood.

Regards,
GtG

PS Our launch pads also use large quantities of water injected right onto the flame diverters. This cools the flame and protects the ground support equipment (it also gives a terrific cloud of steam before the rocket starts to move).

73 posted on 01/07/2012 12:13:08 PM PST by Gandalf_The_Gray (I live in my own little world, I like it 'cuz they know me here.)
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To: LibWhacker; Gandalf_The_Gray
The mystery picture shows the ends of the two large exhaust pipes which were terminated in a cluster of smaller diameter pipes some of which have rectangular baffles plates fixed to the ends of the circular sections.

I would guess that the "square: plates (actually pyramid shaped) with holes drilled through them are intended to introduce more turbulence into the flow of exhaust gasses, thereby reducing the kinetic energy of the gasses and dampening the overall noise level.

G

75 posted on 01/07/2012 8:15:40 PM PST by Gandalf_The_Gray (I live in my own little world, I like it 'cuz they know me here.)
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