The Space Shuttle liftoff pressure wave

The pressure wave produced during the launch of the Space Shuttle and its dynamic effects on ground support structures are studied in this paper. The discrete form of the Fourier transform and the fast Fourier transform algorithm are employed to characterize the pressure wave and to generate design and evaluation data. Analysis is performed on pressure recordings collected from eight pressure transducers mounted on the roof and walls of a building approximately 90 m West of Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. A total of 23 pressure pulses were sampled every 0.25 ms for a 10s duration from six different launches. The analysis produces a pressure-time plot and power spectrum, representing the frequency content of the pressure wave which identifies its ability to excite a structure. Also produced are response spectra for each pressure wave for various amounts of damping. These spectra may be used to predict the dynamic response of a structure located near a launch site.