Aircraft cabin lab
A multifunctional laboratory that recreates the visuals, sounds and seat vibrations of flight. It uses an Embraer ERJ 145 that flew millions of miles for British Airways and Flybe before Nottingham Trent University moved it into its engineering building in 2021.
What
A research laboratory inside the airframe of a decommissioned Embraer ERJ 145. Rakshith worked on the project for two years. It was Rakshith's first practical engineering project, and it became an operational research platform.
How
The team integrated off-the-shelf equipment to an industrial standard. Studio speakers and subwoofers produce the cabin sound. Bass shakers below the seats give vibration from 50 Hz to 200 Hz. Screens on a custom frame outside the windows show the visuals.
An acoustic model in Ansys found the resonance behaviour of the cabin. With one USB dock and a user manual, a single student can operate all three industrial systems.
Results
The laboratory supported perceived-comfort research on turboprop aircraft for the EU Clean Sky 2 Comfdemo project. In a later summer research scholarship, Rakshith developed the laboratory's audio equaliser: signal measurement at each seat, then a parametric equaliser in MATLAB with vectorised code and CUDA acceleration, checked against recorded turboprop noise.