- Author
-
Marker, T. R.
- Title
- Full-Scale Test Evaluation of Aircraft Fuel Fire Burnthorugh Resistance Improvements. Final Report.
- Coporate
- Federal Aviation Administration, Atlantic City International Airport, NJ
- Sponsor
- Federal Aviation Administration, Washington, DC
- Report
-
DOT/FAA/AR-98/52,
January 1999,
42 p.
- Distribution
- AVAILABLE FROM: Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center's Fire Safety Section's Full-Text technical reports page (in Adobe Acrobat portable document format [PDF]): http//www.fire.tc.faa.gov/reports/report.stm AVAILABLE FROM National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Technology Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161. Telephone: 1-800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000; Fax: 703-605-6900. Website: http://www.ntis.gov
- Keywords
-
aircraft fuels
|
burnthrough (failure)
|
large scale fire tests
|
postcrash fires
|
insulation
|
batting
|
rigid foams
|
polyimides
|
fueslages
|
transport aircraft
|
fuel fires
- Identifiers
- heat-treated oxidized polyacrylonitrile fiber (OPF); metallized polyvinyl fluoride film; polyimide film
- Abstract
- This report summarizes the research and full-scale tests undertaken by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to evaluate the fuselage burnthrough resistance of transport category aircraft that are exposed to large postcrash fuel fires. Twenty-eight full-scale tests were conducted in a reusable fuselage test rig to determine the effectiveness of thermal-acoustical insulation improvements in preventing or delaying fuselage burnthrough. The testing showed that the method of attaching the insulation to the fuselage structure had a critical effect on the effectiveness of the insulation material. In addition, the composition of the insulation bagging material, normally a thermoplastic film, was also shown to be an important factor. A number of fiberglass insulation modifications and new insulation materials were shown to be effective in varying degrees. For example, a heat-treated, oxidized polyacrylonitrile fiber (OPF) encased in a polyimide bagging material prevented burnthrough for over 8 minutes. When contrasted with current insulation materials, which were shown to fail in as little as 2 minutes, effective fire barriers such as the OPF insulation offer the potential of saving lives during a postcrash fire accident in which the fuselage remains intact.