Blast Analysis and Design of Rocket Engine Test Facility Control Rooms

In support of plans to add a second control room to the Rocket Engine Test Facility at NASA, Cleveland, OH, the existing control room was analyzed to determine the most severe accidental explosion it could safely withstand. This potential accident was used as the design threat to develop a preliminary design for the new control room. The analysis and design calculations were based on procedures from Army TM 5-1300NAVFAC P-397AFM 88-22 and the computer program CBARCS, which automates some of the procedures in the manual. To evaluate the degree of conservatism in the analysis, experimental data with charge weights and structural dimensions similar to the control rooms were selected and analyzed. Results indicate that the existing room will safely withstand an explosion equivalent to 1,000 lb of TNT detonated at the rocket test stand 20 ft away. To survive the same accident, the new control room to be constructed on top of the old one should have 1-ft thick walls existing walls are 2 ft thick with 0.33 reinforcement existing walls have 1.55. Comparison of data with analysis indicates that an accidental explosion equivalent to approx. 1,800 lb of TNT will cause unacceptable damage to the control room. This analysis results in a much more economical design for the new control room than would be achieved by constructing a new room identical to the old control room.