Patricia Cahill

Round robin flammability testing was performed by eight laboratories on thermal acoustical insulation blankets and films used as insulation coverings. Test samples were subjected to vertical Bunsen burner testing and cotton swab testing. The test data indicated that the cotton swab test produced consistent test results, whereas the vertical flammability test did not.

Richard E. Lyon

A mass loss model for char forming polymers in fires is developed from mechanistic pyrolysis kinetics. Under conditions of flaming combustion the coupled rate equations for thermal degradation products and reactants reduce to a single rate law for the residual mass. Exact results are obtained from the mass loss history which include an equilibrium char yield whose value depends only on the relative rates of gas and char formation at a particular temperature. Reaction rate constants for thermolysis of chemical bonds, gas production, and char formation are determinable from parametric fits of the mechanistic charring model to thermo gravimetric data. Predictions of the no isothermal mass loss during constant heating rate experiments are in agreement with experimental data over the expected range of validity. {

Joe C. Spurgeon, Louise C. Speitel, Ray E. Feher

Seventy-five typical aircraft interior materials were thermally decomposed using a combustion tube furnace. A 250-milligram sample was exposed to a temperature of 600 degree C for 5 minutes while maintaining an airflow rate of 2 liters per minute through the combustion tube. The combustion products were collected in liquid filled fritted bubblers, and the contents were analyzed for hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen bromide, and formaldehyde by differential pulse polarography; nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide by visible spectrophotometry; and hydrogen fluoride by potentiometer titration. Carbon monoxide was collected in plastic sample bags and measured by nondispersive infrared analysis. The yields of the nine gases have been reported in terms of milligrams per gram of material. Parametric studies were also conducted to characterize the effects of experimental parameters on gas yields. These parameters include sample weight (250 and 750 mg), percent oxygen (0, 10.5, and 21 percent), airflow rate (1 to 3 1 pm), and temperature (400, 600 and 800 degree C).

Doug Ingerson

The continued fire endurance of fire-blocked aircraft seat cushions after service wear and tear was evaluated based on in-service examinations performed on commercial aircraft and sample testing of donated cushions per the oil burner test contained in Part 25, Appendix F, Part II of the Federal Aviation Regulations. A total of 176 examinations took place onboard aircraft to evaluate the condition of the in-service seat cushions and the 38 used seat cushions sets that were donated for this project. The comparison indicated that the donated cushion sets were representative of actual in-service conditions. The donated cushion sets were then evaluated for continued fire worthiness with the aircraft cushion oil burner test. Eight pairs were retained in stock condition and the remaining 30 pairs were altered to a "modified" test configuration. The test results included the weight loss profile for each cushion set burnt. The test results indicated that there were no significant fire endurance problems with the fire-blocking materials that were composed of Kevlar, Nomex, and/or polybenzimidazole (PBI) components

Timothy Marker

This report contains a summary of the work performed during the development of a minimum performance standard for lavatory trash receptacle automatic fire extinguishers. The developmental work was performed under the direction of the International Halon Replacement Working Group.