- Author
-
Leonard, J. T.
|
Fulper, C. R.
|
Darwin, R. L.
|
Farmer, K. R.
|
Boyer, L.
|
Burns, R. E.
|
Back, g. G.
|
Hayes, E. D.
|
Ouellette, R. J.
- Title
- Project HULVUL: Propellant Fires in a Shipboard Compartment.
- Coporate
- Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC
Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC
Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, CA
Hughes Associates, Inc., Columbia, MD
- Report
-
NRL Report 9363,
November 29, 1991,
58 p.
- Keywords
-
shipboard fires
|
solid propellants
|
tests
|
thermocouples
|
heat flux
|
calorimeters
|
radiometers
|
transducres
|
cribs
- Identifiers
- load cells; data acquisition
- Abstract
- During Project HULVUL, the U. S. Navy conducted a series of propellant burns in the Junior Ratings Dining Hall of the HULVOL test ship to characterize the thermal environment resulting from burning up to 200 lbs of a solid propellant and up to 1000 lbs of Class A material in a shipboard compartment. The tests were designed to simulate the conditions which occur when a missile strikes a ship's compartment and the warhead fails to detonate, but burning propellant is strewn about the compartment. The results of these tests demonstrated the resulting fire threat from such a missile strike may be considerably less than previously supposed, depending largely upon the size and the configuration of the openings in the compartment and the weight of the unspent propellant. For example, if the opening is sufficiently small, the burning propellant will consume or displace most of the oxygen in the compartment during its brief, ca 2 minute burn period. Thus, although Clas A material in the compartment may be pyrolized during propellant burn, it will not continue to burn due to the lack of available oxygen. On the other hand, for a large missile enry hold or if the compartment doors are open at the time of the missile strike, and intense conflagration is likely to follow unless prompt action is taken by the fire parties.