Over the past few years the amount of composite material used in aircraft has greatly increased due to its inherent light weight and high strength. However, recent mishaps involving composite aircraft call into question the ability to extinguish composite fires with the same effectiveness as current methods used for aluminum-skinned aircraft. To this end, a series of medium-scale fire experiments were performed on aerospace composite materials to determine the capability of various fire suppression technologies (e.g. air-aspirated, compressed air foam [CAFS], ultra-high pressure [UHP]) and agents (e.g. aqueous film-forming foam [AFFF], film-forming fluoroprotein [FFFP], Class A foam, dry chemical, heating gels) to extinguish composite fires. In each experiment, two carbon fiber bismaleimide (BMI) panels (2’ × 3’ × 1/16”) were placed nearly parallel to each other in a steel frame over a pool of jet fuel. The pool was ignited and allowed to burn for a predetermined amount of time, after which a firefighter extinguished the pool fire followed by the composite fire. Time, temperature, heat flux, and video were recorded throughout the process. Results will aid in decision making regarding composite fire extinguishment.
展开▼
