The ignition hazard to urban interiors during nuclear attack due to burning curtain fragments transported by blast

摘要

There exists some uncertainty at present, in the formulation of civiluddefense doctrine, as to whether it is advisable for window curtains to beudclosed or open during nuclear attack. Closed curtains would be in positionudto intercept some major portion, or all, of the thermal radiation pulse thatudwould otherwise enter through the window and ignite kindling fuels withinudthe room. But because they did so they would probably ignite and theudflaming curtains, propelled into the room by the blast wave, could representudan even more serious ignition hazard than would occur if the window remaineduduncovered, and the curtains uninvolved. Because of this uncertainty,udlimited investigation, was undertaken to gain information concerning theudignition hazard represented by burning curtain fragments carried on a blastudwave into typical urban interiors.udThe specific objective of the research described in this report was toudinvestigate the propensity of burning curtains, carried into typical urbanudinteriors by blast waves, to cause ignitions within the interiors capableudof leading to flashover. The situation simulated in the experiments was oneudin which the closed curtains, having been ignited by thermal radiation fromuda nuclear weapon explosion, were carried, still burning, into a room inudwhich none of the kindling fuels had been ignited owing to interception ofudmost of the thermal pulse by the curtains. The blast wave, transportingudthe burning curtain fragments, was assumed to originate from the same weaponudproducing the thermal pulse, so that an appropriate delay time intervened,udin each experiment, between curtain ignition and blast arrival.