The Airport and Aircraft Safety Research and Development Group Fire Safety Team performed tests at the Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center using the environmental chamber and the Air Induction Facility (wind tunnel) to examine the variation in flammability exposure of a fuel tank composed of a composite material skin and a traditional aluminum skin. Tests were also conducted to examine the impact of material topcoat color on fuel tank temperature and hydrocarbon concentrations. The correlation between high total hydrocarbon concentration measurements and high ullage temperature increases in all tests provided further indication that ullage temperature changes were the driving force behind in-flight flammability for fuel tanks when heated from above. This is contrary to what had been found for a heated center wing fuel tank in which the average bulk fuel temperature is the main driver behind fuel tank flammability. The tests showed that composite panels, regardless of topcoat color, have the potential to result in a significant increase in flammability exposure because they transmit radiant heat into the fuel tank much more readily than a traditional aluminum fuel tank. However, the results also showed that under the right conditions, either through additional heat input or a change in material topcoat color, an aluminum fuel tank could behave similar to a composite fuel tank.
Comparison of Flammability Characteristics of Composite and Aluminum Wing Fuel Tanks
2011
25 pages
Report
No indication
English
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