Impact of Drift on the Vehicle Liftoff Acoustic Environments

As a launch vehicle lifts off the pad, depending on the flyaway maneuver, it will drift away from the exhaust hole causing the plume(s) to impinge on the launch deck. This impingement on the deck creates acoustic sources and causes the noise levels on the vehicle to increase. The percentage of the plume which impinges on the deck can be calculated and related to sound pressure levels. Using this information, a delta dB can be calculated if the drift or flyaway maneuver for a specific vehicle changes during a program