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Records 116 to 120 of 1027
| Burning Behavior Within a Seat Armrest Cavity |
| Richard M. Johnson |
| The purpose of this technical note is to document the results of fire tests conducted to examine the characteristics of fire that may occur in the cavity of an aircraft seat armrest and the fire-containment capability of the cavity. In all the tests conducted with actual seat armrests, the fire self-extinguished, the armrest materials did not ignite, and the fire was contained within the armrest cavity. |
| DOT/FAA/AR-TN02/105 |
9 |
212 KB |
| Development of a Minimum Performance Standard for Hand-Held Fire Extinguishers as a Replacement for Halon 1211 on Civilian Transport Category Aircraft |
| Harry Webster |
One or more Halon 1211 hand-held fire extinguishers are specified in Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Part 25.851 as a requirement on transport category aircraft with 31 or more seats. Halon 1211 has been linked to the destruction of the ozone layer and production of new Halon 1211 has been halted per the Montreal Protocol in 1993. The phase out of Halon 1211, as the hand-held firefighting agent of choice, for civilian transport category aircraft has necessitated the development of a Minimum Performance Standard (MPS) to evaluate replacement agents. The purpose of the MPS is to insure that there is no reduction in safety, both in terms of effectiveness in fighting onboard fires and toxicity to the passengers and crew.
The MPS specifies two new tests that replacement agents must pass in addition to requiring national certifications such as provided by Underwriters Laboratories. The first test evaluates the "flooding" characteristics of the agent against a hidden in-flight fire. This test determines the ability of a streaming agent to function as a flooding agent. The second test evaluates the performance of the agent in fighting a terrorist fire scenario and the associated toxicity hazard. This test measures the agent's ability to extinguish a triple-seat fire in an aircraft cabin under in-flight conditions and the toxicity characteristics of both the neat agent and the products of decomposition.
This MPS will insure that the replacement agents will meet or exceed the performance of Halon 1211 both in fighting fires and maintaining a safe breathing environment in aircraft cabins. |
| DOT/FAA/AR-01/37 |
43 |
13.7 MB |
| Office of Aviation Research
Combustibility of Cyanate Ester Resins |
| Richard E. Lyon, Richard Walters and S. Gandhi |
| Flaming and nonflaming combustion studies were conducted on a series of polycyanurates to examine the effect of chemical composition and physical properties on the fire behavior of these cross-linked, char-forming thermoset polymers. Heats of complete combustion of the polymer and fuel gases were determined by oxygen bomb calorimetry and pyrolysis-combustion flow calorimetry, respectively. Fire calorimetry experiments were conducted to measure the heat released, the rate of heat release, and the smoke generation in flaming combustion. Fire response parameters derived from the data include the thermal inertia, heat of gasification, effective heat of combustion, and combustion efficiency. Halogen-containing polycyanurates exhibited extremely low heat release rate in flaming combustion compared to the hydrocarbon resins, yet produced significantly
less smoke and comparable levels of carbon monoxide and soot. |
| DOT/FAA/AR-02/44 |
26 |
606 KB |
| Fire-Resistant Cyanate Ester-Epoxy Blends |
| Richard N. Walters |
| The cure chemistry, thermal stability, and fire behavior in a series of fire-resistant cyanate ester-epoxy blends were examined. The dicyanate and diepoxide of 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethylene (bisphenol-C, BPC) were combined in various molar ratios, and the reaction chemistry was monitored using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Fire behavior of the BPC cyanate-epoxy blends was studied in flaming and nonflaming combustion, using fire calorimetry and pyrolysis-combustion flow calorimetry, respectively. |
| DOT/FAA/AR-02/53 |
20 |
263 KB |
| Fire-Resistant Elastomers |
| Richard E. Lyon |
| Molecular design of semi-inorganic rubbers has yielded flexible polysilphenylene-siloxane and polyphosphazene elastomers having the fire resistance of rigid, high-temperature engineering plastics (e.g., polyaramids, polyetherketones, and polyarylsulfones) based on the results of microscale combustibility data. In flaming combustion, a commercially viable polyphosphazene exhibited a 75% reduction in heat release rate compared to the polyurethane rubber currently used in fire-blocked foam aircraft seat cushions. A comparable reduction in heat release rate is obtained at lower cost by adding expandable graphite flakes to the polyurethane formulation. The graphite flakes exfoliate during heating to produce a 2000% volumetric expansion of the burned rubber which shields and insulates the underlying material from the heat source and lowers the heat release rate significantly. Future work will explore the use of relatively low-cost expandable graphite technology in semi-inorganic rubber to obtain a fireproof (zero heat release rate) seat cushion foam. |
| DOT/FAA/AR-TN01/104 |
22 |
937 KB |
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