Submarine Compartment Fire Study Performance Evaluation of Hull Insulation.

摘要

Certain foam rubber materials which are currently used to insulate the interior of submarines are shown to possess a serious fire risk potential. Flame spread tests often do not adequately reflect the fire hazard potential of these materials. It is shown that compartment fire testing is the only satisfactory method of of evaluating these kinds of materials at the present time. Fire barrier coatings for protecting these hull insulations are also investigated. Two candidate coatings are found to prevent full fire involvement of an insulated compartment following a moderately large flame exposure and at the same time meet the Navy's elasticity requirement for submarine application. The study includes comparisons of model and prototype compartment fire behavior and demonstrates the practicality of using quarter-scale fire tests for screening compartment finish materials.