A Preliminary Examination of the Effectiveness of Hand-Held Extinguishers Against Hidden Fires in the Cabin Overhead Area of Narrow-Body and Wide-Body Transport Aircraft

Details

• Creators:
  Marker, Timothy R.
• Corporate Creators:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. William J. Hughes Technical Center. Airport and Aircraft Safety Research and Development Division.
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. Office of Aviation Research and Development
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Aircraft Cabins Cabin Overhead Area Fire Extinguishers Fire Fighting Equipment Flammability Halon Tests
• Publication/ Report Number:
  DOT/FAA/AR-TN04/33
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  Technical Notes
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. William J. Hughes Technical Center
• Abstract:
  Twenty hand-held extinguisher tests were performed in the overhead space in both narrow- and wide-body aircraft. These tests simulated a typical hidden fire in the inaccessible area above the cabin ceiling by using a number of small, controllable candle lanterns. The purpose of the tests was to determine the performance of the Federal Aviation Administration-required, hand-held Halon 1211 extinguishers against a fire in this area when discharging the agent through a ceiling-mounted port. In an effort to maximize agent performance, the port design was modified as these tests progressed. The tests indicated that individual hand-held extinguishers did not predictably extinguish fires in the large-volume cabin overhead area typical of a wide-body aircraft, regardless of the port design. However, the use of ceiling-mounted discharge ports combined with hand-held extinguishers was more promising against fires in the more confined and smaller-volume overhead area typical of a narrow-body aircraft. Additional work would have to be performed to further develop and optimize this concept.
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center for Advanced Aerospace
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e3b6c7531635f2944936ebec986b1c553c043505079f93f50ef6294165abfa9818674563e9f6d02f9650aca8a76aec43f0813a9e25877247c67fbc8322b3be2b
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/90122/dot_90122_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.06 MB ]