Flammability of In-Service Aircraft Thermal Acoustic Insulation Blankets

Details

• Creators:
  Lyon, Richard E. ; Safronava, Natallia ; Cahill, Patricia ; Conover, Brian
• Corporate Creators:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. William J. Hughes Technical Center. Airport and Aircraft Safety Research and Development Division. ; SRA International, Inc
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Calorimeters Combustion Contamination Damping (Engineering) Heat Flow In-service Aircraft Microscale Combustion Calorimetry
• Publication/ Report Number:
  DOT/FAA/AR-TN09/43
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  Technical Note
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. William J. Hughes Technical Center
• Abstract:
  Thermal acoustic insulation blankets are widely used in commercial aircraft to provide thermal insulation and acoustic damping. This report examines the burning effects on the thermal acoustic insulation blankets retrieved from the EVA Airways Flight BR67 fire event. On February 23, 2008, passengers disembarking from EVA Airways Flight BR67 reported smoke in the cabin of the Boeing 747-400 after landing at Suvamabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. An investigation of the incident revealed burned thermal acoustic insulation blankets. The level of contamination on the encapsulating films of the as-received insulation blankets varied greatly. Samples of the contaminated film from different locations were weighed to determine the areal weight of contamination, were ranked by visual inspection, and were characterized by microscale combustion calorimetry to determine the thermal combustion properties. Thermal acoustic insulation blankets were also tested for flammability as prescribed by Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations 25.853 and 25.855. It was found that the visible contamination ranged in areal weight up to 167 grams per square meter of film surface and had a heat of combustion of 13 kJ/g, which is half that of the underlying insulation bag film. All in-service blankets and film samples passed the required 12-second vertical Bunsen burner test for flame resistance. The contaminated blankets did not pass the voluntary guideline for flame spread. Numerical modeling of the burning rate of contaminated blankets was conducted to help explain the flame spread results.
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center for Advanced Aerospace
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:85e58af82e4ca35ac4a51392161ff18058c01f4c5ecafcbd4640c98fa7cb5e8a4ebb8174016a2f418c01bb7ff6a2a172c1d4cd057c9691d1980fbd38559869b2
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/90250/dot_90250_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.47 MB ]