- Author
-
Geyer, G. B.
|
Neri, L. M.
|
Urban, C. H.
- Title
- Use of Ground Cover Materials to Suppress Fuel Spill Fires. Final Report. July 1972-October 1972.
- Coporate
- Federal Aviation Administration, Atlantic City, NJ
- Sponsor
- Federal Aviation Administration, Washington, DC
- Report
-
FAA-RD-73-74; Project 081-431-030,
July 1973,
20 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Keywords
-
fuel spills
|
liquid fuels
|
fuel fires
|
fire suppression
|
aircraft fires
|
crash fires
|
fire tests
|
flash point
|
spill fires
- Identifiers
- aircraft ground crash fires
- Abstract
- Small-scale experiments were conducted to determine the effectiveness of crushed and graded stone aggregate in preventing or retarding the rate of flame propagation from a fixed-ignition source when it was employed as a simulated ground cover material under controlled experimental conditions, for each of three aviation fuels. Tests included the use of loosely packed aggregate and no-fines concrete made with the same material. No significant difference in the rate of flame spread was noted between the loosely packed aggregate and no-fines concrete under equivalent test conditions. The experiments showed that the effectiveness of an aggregate in retarding flame propagation was a function of its size and the flash point of the hydrocarbon fuel and of its depth below the surface of the simulated ground cover. The fire suppression and/or containment effectiveness of the ground cover materials increased as the size of the aggregate decreased and the flash point of the fuel increased and as the depth of the fuel below the surface of the stone increased.