- Author
-
Judd, M. D.
|
Meehan, J.
- Title
- Flammability Testing of Materials for the European Spacelab.
- Coporate
- ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
Marconi Space Systems, Hants, England
- Book or Conf
- International Conference of Flammability. INTERFLAM '85. Conference Workbook. March 26-28, 1985,
Guildford, England,
243-250 p.,
1985
- Keywords
-
flammability testing
|
spacecraft
|
fire tests
|
oxygen index test
- Identifiers
- materials flammability
- Abstract
- The European Spacelab represents Europes entry into manned spaceflight. With Spacelab came additional requirements for materials testing, including flammability and toxicity. Although NASA had considerable experience in flammability testing this was a completely new field for ESA requiring the building of test facilities and the gaining of the relevant expertise. Over the last ten years a large range of European materials have been evaluated under a wide variety of test atmospheres. Considerable emphasis has been placed on configuration testing whereby a material has been evaluated in the "as to be used" condition. This paper describes the test methods used together with some examples which will serve to illustrate the type of materials investigated. NASA required that all materials be tested according to their own test methods, "Flammability, Odor and Offgassing Requirements and Test Procedures for Materials in Environments that Support Combustion", NASA Specification NHB8060.1 (rev. A dated February 1974, rev. B dated September 1981. ESA tested certain materials in parallel using the Oxygen Index Test.