D.A. Kourtides

To provide materials technology required to make future aircraft materials, structures and subsystems as fire resistant as feasible, and to accelerate the transfer of this technology to aircraft manufactures.

Joe C. Spurgeon, Robert Filipczak, Ray E. Feher

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has initiated a program for evaluating the contribution of aircraft interior materials to the hazard of a postcrash fire. One aspect of the postcrash fire hazard is the potential toxic threat presented by the thermal decomposition products of the interior materials. Typical aircraft interior materials will be compared on the basis of both toxic gas concentrations and small animal response data obtained during full-scale fire tests in a 13,000 cubic foot fuselage (reference 1). These tests will be conducted at the FAA’s National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center (NAFEC). One of the purposes of these tests is to characterize the fire environment and to provide a data bank upon which laboratory tests can be modeled.

Constantine P. Sarkos

This report describes a C-133 wide body chain fire test facility and preliminary data obtained under simulated postcrash fuel fire conditions. The major goal of attaining repeatable cabin hazard measurements resulting from an external fuel fire was partially attained but requires additional work. From the tests conducted thus far, it is concluded that heat, smoke, and toxic gases are significantly stratified; heat and smoke are greater hazards than carbon monoxide; and oxygen is not significantly depleted. These preliminary findings are for an unfurnished, ventilated cabin with an external fuel fire adjacent to a door opening.

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

Twelve aircraft interior materials were burned under standard flaming combustion Conditions in the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) smoke chamber. Each material was also exposed to 600 degree Celsius © in a combustion tube furnace under conditions of oxidative pyrolysis. The combustion products were collected in liquid-filled impingers, 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 ion-selective electrode. Carbon monoxide was measured directly by a nondispersive infrared analyzer. The yields of the nine gases are reported in terms of milligrams per gram of material. The toxic gas yields were obtained for each material in the NBS smoke chamber and were compared to the yields obtained in the combustion tube furnace. The yields were also compared to those obtained using colorimetric detector tubes in the NBS chamber. The extent of the correlation of the various procedures is reported. The relative yields of HC, HCN, and H2S were found to be somewhat independent of the exposure conditions. The relative yields of the oxidized gases, CO, HCHO, NO2 and SO2, are much more dependent on the exposure conditions

Charles D. MacArthur, John F. Myers

Results are presented of an evaluation of the Dayton Aircraft Fir Model (DACFIR) by comparison to seven full-scale cabin mock-up fire tests. Refinements made to the mathematical model as a result of the comparison are given. Refinements include a generalization of the "treatment of the cabin geometry to include .cabins of various widths, improved thermal radiation modeling, computation of oxygen consumption, and a treatment of forced ventilation. A laboratory testing program to acquire flammability, smoke, and gas generation data on the furnishing materials of the full-scale test is described.Based on the results of the comparisons, sections of the mathematical model which require further refinement are identified and some appropriate refinements are suggested