The Development and Application of a Full-Scale Wide-Body Test Article to Study the Behavior of Interior Materials During a Post Crash Fuel Fire

Abstract

The focal point of this work is a full-scale, wide-body test article, constructed from a surplus C-133 aircraft. This paper describes the following major elements of the development and application of the C-133 article to study postcrash cabin fires: (1) initial development, capabilities and instrumentation; (2) derivation of fuel fire test conditions based on physical modeling and large-scale fire tests; (3) characterization of cabin fire hazards arising solely from an external fuel fire without the contribution of interior materials; (4) characterization of cabin fire hazards resulting from the exposure of wide-body interior materials to an external fuel fire (the fuel fire, by itself, would be clearly survivable over the test duration if the interior were noncombustible); and (5) evaluation of the effectiveness of urethane seat cushion fire blocking layers and improved cushioning materials over a range of test configurations. The results of the extensive tests that have been performed to date, especially over the past 12 to 18 months, are beginning to improve our understanding of the cabin hazards and important parameters associated with postcrash fire, and, by the example of seat cushions, illustrate how safety benefits can be realized by the useage of improved materials.