For vehicle hulls, shells, and components currently made from metal, the primary fire risk is from fuel release igniting and the resultant heat/flame working its way into the passenger compartment. With modern vehicles today where it is desirable to replace the metal with lighter weight polymer composites to improve fuel efficiency, the primary fire risk/fuel load may shift to the polymer rather than the vehicle fuel. With this in mind, we have recently studied the flammability of fiber-reinforced polymer composites by cone calorimeter to determine which polymeric materials can provide reasonable fire protection. In this paper we present cone calorimeter data on a variety of thick vehicular composites (5mm to 25 mm thick) to better understand the effects of polymer resin chemistry as well as fiber type and content. The results collected indicate that the choice of polymer has the greatest effect on composite flammability, and, the way in which the polymer burns greatly affects the structural stability of the composite under fire conditions.
Flammability of fiber-reinforced polymer composites for vehicles
2009
11 Seiten, 7 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 27 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Datenträger
Englisch
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