- Author
-
Fowell, A. J.
- Title
- Developments Needed to Expand the Role of Fire Modeling in Material Fire Hazard Assessment.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
-
DOT/FAA/CT-93/3; DOT/FAA/93/3,
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Book or Conf
- Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). International Conference for the Promotion of Advanced Fire Resistant Aircraft Interior Materials. February 9-11, 1993,
Atlantic City, NJ,
255-262 p.,
1993
- Keywords
-
aircraft interiors
|
fire resistant materials
|
test methods
|
fire safety
|
fire hazard
|
hazard assessment
|
fire models
|
validation
|
databases
- Abstract
- To assess the fire hazards associated with aircraft interior materials, prediction of how the materials perform under different fire scenarios is needed. This requires information on a variety of fire characteristics including thermal inertia, ease of ignition, rate of heat release, flame spread, products of combustion and the response to suppressants. Exposure conditions such as location, orientation, ventilation and proximity to other materials can influence some of those characteristics. Pass/fail test methods of the past cannot provide the information to assure fire safety under a variety of circumstances. Fire modeling in combination with new bench scale material flammability test methods can meet the need. National and international developments in model validation, documentation and acceptance are presented. The transition to aircraft cabin fire hazard assessment using fire models requires a data base on material fire properties. The case is made for greater use of improved bench scale test methods which can provide data suitable for use in the fire models.