Hot Air Decontamination of the C-141 Aircraft Technology Development Program

摘要

Hot Air Decontamination (HAD) is a process involving the elevation of temperatures, which accelerates the removal of chemical agents from materials without affecting their integrity. A preliminary feasibility study identified a relevant evaporation model. Results from this study formulated a two-phased technology development and testing effort. This program characterized evaporation of chemical agents from representative aircraft materials, and developed and demonstrated the effectiveness of a Hot Air System (HAS) to elevate and maintain surface temperatures and air velocities of the cargo area of a military aircraft, the C-141 Starlifter. Field thermal data indicated that an average temperature of 150.1 degrees F plus or minus 4.3 degrees F and an average air velocity of 3.5 ft/sec was achieved and maintained on aircraft cargo bay surfaces. To characterize the evaporative effects of agents on representative materials, laboratory tests, which involved coupon and evaporative studies were conducted. These studies characterized agent evaporation at realistic conditions and correlated these results with simulants. Analytical data from the laboratory suggested that hot air (150 degrees F) provides a 2-log reduction of surface contamination (1 g/m(exp 2)) for mustard, thickened mustard, and VX agents when exposing contaminated materials for 3, 4, and 20 hr, respectively. Coupon studies further validated the laboratory results.