Wind Tunnel Investigation of the Wind Patterns in the Launching Pad Area of the Brazilian Alcântara Launch Center

ABSTRACT This paper presents a wind tunnel study of the flow patterns in the main Brazilian Space Port, the Alcântara Launch Center (ALC), located in the Northwest region, over an irregular coastal cliff of 40 m height. In the ALC region, constant winds of strong incidence are very common, which can change the characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer and affect safety conditions during launching operations. This study was conducted using a scaled model of the Launching Pad Area (LPA) in ALC complex with the purpose of getting insights about the wind flow patterns, as zones of strong ...