Noise and Sonic Boom Impact Technology. Sonic Boom Damage to Conventional Structures

United States Air Force supersonic aircraft operations generate sonic booms which may effect existing structures. Typical effects of the sonic boom range from a mild nuisance to damage to windows, plaster and bric-a-brac. A literature survey was performed to identify existing models, suitable for an environmental planner to use for assessing the impact of supersonic flights on conventional structures. A model developed by Hershey and Higgins was identified as the most nearly suitable model. As a result of an extensive sensitivity analysis of this model, a number of enhancements to the model were developed. Finally, the revised model was packaged to facilitate the use by an environmental planner. A comparison of the existing U.S. Air Force methodology and the mean damage estimates produced by the new approach shows that the existing method usually produces higher loss estimates, although sometimes the loss estimates are comparable. The new method offers the advantage of quantifying the degree of conservatism in damage estimates and extending it from window panes to include other vulnerable materials. Keywords Sonic booms Structural response model Structural effects Conventional structures Damage to windows.