Space shuttle: An investigation of the load distribution over the SRB and external tank of a 0.004 scale model of the 049 space shuttle launch configuration

A study was conducted in a trisonic wind tunnel to determine the load distribution over the external tank and solid rocket boosters of the space shuttle launch configuration. The external tank was sting-supported and the solid rocket boosters and orbiter were mounted directly on the external tank. The external tank was, instrumented with 152 pressure orifices and the solid rocket boosters contained 78 orifices. The pressure data were obtained for various combinations of the three geometric components as the gap size between the external tank and the solid rocket boosters, angle of attack, and angle of sideslip were varied. Mach numbers ranged from 0.8 to 1.96.