| Water Towers and Standpipes of the United States of America. Sponsored by "Understanding Your Home" by building inspector Mark Visser | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Tower Information Tower signage: Built: Height: 290' (88m) Capacity: 300.000 gallons (1,100,000 liters) Missing tower data: Please contact us if you have more information. Please take some pictures of "your" local tower and send them to us, uncropped and in .jpg format. Click here to send us an image Tower Information -1 Each launcing pad has an elevated water tower. The towers are 290' (88m) tall and hold 300.000 gallons (1,100,000 liters) of water. "The water used at each launch is not for containing the flames or for cooling the equipment. The water towers are part of a sound suppession, or sound buffering, system. Those are jets of water released by the sound suppression systems installed on the pads and the mobile launcher platforms to protect orbiters and their payloads from being damaged by acoustical energy, reflected from the platform during the liftoff stage of a rocket launch. The water system is designed to protect the Shuttle and its payloads from any damage that may occur from acoustical energy reflected from the Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP) during launch. The water is released seconds before ignition of the orbiter's three main engines and twin Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB), then flows through parallel 7-foot-diameter pipes (middle picture above) to the Pad. The system includes a 290-foot-high water tank filled with 300,000 gallons of water, and it empties in 41 seconds during a launch. Water pours from 16 nozzles on top of the flame deflectors and from outlets in the Shuttle main engine exhaust hole in the MLP at main engine ignition, which occurs approximately 7 seconds before liftoff". Tower Information -2 When a rocket or space shuttle is launched, it releases a huge shockwave from the hot exhaust. This shockwave is so powerful that it can knock down and flatten structures in the vicinity of 1 or 2 miles. This is a serious damage. Scientists worked on this problem and came up with an ingenious solution. Experiments showed that a falling column of water droplets or mist could absorb the vast pressure of the shockwave. This was a perfect solution to the blastwave problem from a rocket launch. However, dispensing such a huge amount of water in a short duration of time using powerful motors was both not feasible and unreliable due to the immense ground shaking during a rocket launch. Hence, the ever reliable force of gravity was taken into use. These huge elevated tanks 290 feet hight. As soon as the 8 second mark reaches, (the rocket engines starts at 5), the valves open and a vast quantity of water is blast in the form of mist near the engines. This is how the shockwave from a rocket/ space shuttle launch is absorbed without causing any harm. Also, this water removes the heat from the launch pad. Resourses: Compilation of Wikipedia, Quora and others Other sites you may be interested in: Thumbnail Collection of USA Water Towers Canadian Water Towers and Standpipes Magnetic Hills in the United States of America The History of the Christian Fish Symbol |
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