- Author
-
Brown, W. R.
|
Vassallo, F. A.
- Title
- Fabric Flammability Test Development.
- Coporate
- Cornell Aeronautical Lab., Inc., Buffalo, NY
- Sponsor
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
-
CAL Report VH-2856Z1; NBS GCR 73-2; NBS-CST-9825,
May 1970,
88 p.
- Contract
- CONTRACT-CST-982-5
- Keywords
-
heat transfer
|
combustion
|
smoldering
|
fabric flammability testing
|
fabrics
|
heat flux
|
test chambers
|
thermoplastic fabrics
- Identifiers
- heat meter instrumentation
- Abstract
- Heat meter instrumentation and a test chamber are developed for the measurement of heat transfer from burning and smoldering fabrics. The meters yield a signal proportional to heat flux, and a four-channel; electronic integrator provides total heat input data as a function of time. Literature data on skin damage vs. heat input are employed in a graphical overlay method of interpreting data in terms of skin damage. Data demonstrating good reproducibility in tests of cotton fabrics at various spacings are presented. Thermoplastic fabrics tended not to burn or smolder regularly in the flat panel form employed in the test, but recommendations are given for study of strip specimens which may be amenable to test by the suggested methods. It was found that all of the fabric specimens which burned regularly in the chamber produced heat inputs at least double thos required to inflict second-degree burns.