- Author
-
Cooper, L. Y.
- Title
- Thermal Response of Aircraft Cabin Ceiling Materials During a Post-Crash, External Fuel-Spill, Fire Scenario.
- Coporate
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Sponsor
- Federal Aviation Administration, Atlantic City Airport, NJ
- Report
-
NBSIR 84-2912; AIAA-85-0395
October 1984
52 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Book or Conf
- American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Aerospace Sciences Meeting, 23rd. Reno, NV. 11 pgs. January 14-17, 1985 AND International Association for Fire Safety Science. Fire Safety Science. Proceedings. 1st International Symposium. Gaithersburg, MD. 775-787 pgs. Grant, C. E. and Pagni, P. J., Editors. Hemisphere Publishing Co., NY. October 7-11, l985,
['1986', '1985', '1984']
- Keywords
-
aircraft compartments
|
aircraft fires
|
algorithms
|
ceilings
|
egress
|
exits
|
fire safety
|
fire spread
|
upholstered furniture
|
spill fires
- Abstract
- An algorithm is developed to predict the thermal response of aircraft ceiling materials during a post-crash fire scenario. The scenario involves an aircraft's emergency exit doorway which opens directly onto the flames of an external, fuel-spill fire which engulf a large portion of the fuselage. Data of near-ceiling temperatures acquired during a series of eight, full-scale, wide-body aircraft cabin, post-crash test simulations provide indirect validation of the algorithm. These tests involved cabins outfitted with only single, mockup seats. Two other full-scale cabin tests involving fire spread through twenty-one seat arrays with different types of seat construction provide the input data required to exercise the algorithm in evaluations of fully outfitted cabins. Relative to the post-crash scenario, a measure of cabin fire safety is proposed, viz., the post-crash time-to-ceiling-ignition. This measure would be used as a surrogate for the post-crash time available for passengers to safely evacuate the cabin. In this sense, the algorithm is exercised in an example evaluation of the fire safety of a candidate honeycomb ceiling material used together in cabin systems involving polyurethane cushion seating, with or without a blocking layer.