Paul N. Boris, James H. Dailey, Anthony M. Spezio

One I5-minute fireproof test us ing a standard Federal Aviat ion Adminis trat ion (FAA) fire test burner or a modification thereof, was conducted on each of four panels representative of portions of the re-engined KC-13SR nacelle installation. Included were panels representative of those used for the fan cowl, fan duct, and firewall. Of these test samples, the panel representative of the firewall sustained complete flame penetration; those representative of fan cowl panels sustained penetration by the test flame into the aluminum honeycomb sub layer; and that t'epresentative of the fan duct panel sustained no visible exterior damage other than warping.

R.G. Hill, L.J. Brown, L. Speitel, G.R. Johnson, C. Sarkos

Full-scale tests were conducted utilizing the C133 test article located in the Full-Scale Fire Test Facility to determine the benefits that could be derived from fire blocking aircraft passenger seats. Various fire scenarios were selected and tests conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of various blocking materials. The scenarios selected fell into three broad classifications, (1) post-crash, (2) inflight, and (3) ramp type fires. Test results indicate that the use of a fire-blocking material could increase survivable evacuation time during a post-crash fire that enters a fuselage through a break in the cabin, by as much as 50 percent. Tests also indicate that in-flight and ramp type fires that could destroy the aircraft with present seating materials, could be controlled with the use of a fire-blocking material.

U.S. Department of Transportation

The overall objective of the aircraft systems fire safety technical program is to characterize the hazards created by an in-flight fire as it relates to aircraft safety, determine effective means for preventing, detecting, extinguishing and isolating the fire through development of technical criteria operating procedures and recommendations for regulatory procedures for transport, general aviation and rotorcraft, that will establish overall fireworthy aircraft. Also, through continued study and testing to further improve the fire protection available in a postcrash fire.

Charles D. MacArthur

This report was prepared by the University of Dayton Research Institute for the Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center under Contract DTFAO3-C-82-00022 during the period 12 March 1982 through 30 April 19B3. Richard Hill and David Blake served as contract technical officers.

Work was performed at the university under the supervision of Nicholas A. Engler and James K. Luers. Programming assistance was provided by Zalfa Challita. Stevie Ann Hardyal edited .the document and Gretcha Walther, Lynn Nash, and Nahla Abdelnour prepared the typescript. The authors wish to thank all those mentioned for their valuable suggestions, patience, and encouragement.

This report is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Richard B. Wallace, Lt. Col. USAF Ret., our respected colleague who perished in a fire in his home December 31, 1981.

Thor I. Eklund

A simple model is developed to describe the performance of interior aircraft honeycomb panels in a fire environment. A perfect stirrer analysis is applied to an aircraft cabin in-flight fire of constant size. Heat addition from the fire is offset by heat losses through the aircraft ventilation system and heat transfer through wall and ceiling panels. The ventilation rate is generalized into an effective ventilation rate t_at includes the panel heat transfer losses. Jhe analysis demonstrates that conduction heat transfer and convection heat transfer can play comparable roles in lowering asymptotic values of enclosure temperature rise. The analysis leads to the definition of both a characteristic ventilation time and a characteristic burning time. The ratio of these times is a dimensionless variable that dominates asymptotic values of temperature. Pyrolysis of panels is further demonstrated as a potential heat sink. An experimental technique is proposed to determine the thermal inertia of a fuselage interior in a non-destructive fashion