- Author
- Mehta, A. K. | Wong, F.
- Title
- Measurement of Flammability and Burn Potential of Fabrics. Progress Report 2.
- Coporate
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
- Sponsor
- National Science Foundation, Washington, DC
- Report
- Progress Report 2, June 30, 1971, 45 p.
- Contract
- GRANT-GK-27188 PROJECT-DSR-72894
- Keywords
- fabrics | flammability measurements | burns (injuries) | surface temperature | fire spread | skin burns (human)
- Abstract
- Progress during this quarter has included the fabrication and testing of a rod-type skin simulant formed by electron beam welding. The performance tests have shown this simulant to have the design properties for simulating the values of kcp and k/cp for skin with a stretch factor of 28.4 and performance as a semi-infinite solid for exposure times up to about 30 seconds. A second simulant, made by electroforming the simulant surface on the rods, has been completed but not tested. A computer program has been developed and tested for converting to a criterion of burn injury the temperature history of the surface of a semi-infinite solid exposed to thermal inputs of arbitrarily varying intensity in time. A representative test of the burning of a sample of cotton batiste thus treated using the Henriques damage integral as a burn criterion predicts serious skin damage for the test conditions (cloth spaced 1/2 in. above the surface of the transite skin simulant). A preliminary discussion is presented of fire spread theory together with a dimensional analysis of the problem. A constant humidity test chamber for flame spread and burn damage studies has been substantially completed.