Flame Attack on Protected Carbon/epoxy Laminates—Small-scale Material Screening for Potential Use as Aircraft Powerplant Firewalls (abstract only)

Abstract

Carbon/epoxy composites are found in primary and secondary aircraft structures and their use has extended aircraft powerplants’ “cold†zone. When found in designated fire zones, they need to act as firewalls where appropriate protective methods need to be incorporated. Hence, aircraft-powerplant certification guidelines require large-scale fire tests to determine material integrity. Such tests can translate in expensive and lengthy campaigns that could be mitigated with a preliminary small-scale test campaign. A smallscale rapid screening method is presented. Virgin and protected carbon/epoxy specimens, with a similar configuration to those found in powerplant firewalls, were exposed to a 1100 °C flame for 15 minutes. Backside temperature and mass loss values are compared. This method adequately rates the fire performance of several protection methods.