Airplane Tests of Enhanced Emergency Smoke Venting
Abstract
This airplane test program evaluated the capability of air conditioning (environmental control) system modifications to enhance the venting of neutral or buoyant smoke that may be continuously injected into the passenger cabin during an inflight fire emergency. The program used a Boeing 757 airplane modified by adding an outflow valve in the forward upper lobe fuselage and changing to high-flow control valves in both air conditioning packs. Artificially generated smoke, neutral and with helium added to simulate buoyancy, was released at various passenger cabin locations. Data from the ground tests showed that an upper lobe outflow valve controls either neutral or buoyant smoke. Cruise/descend/land test results showed that neutral smoke can be controlled with either an upper or lower lobe outflow valve if the outflow valve and the smoke source are at the same end of the passenger cabin; this capability is not changed significantly by a 30% increase to the current pack flow rate. The results also showed that maintaining pack flow while doors are open for passenger evacuation causes an undesirable increase in the rate of smoke spreading into the smoke free portions of the cabin. Keywords: Smoke abatement, Aircraft fires.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA209188
Entities
People
- Elliott L. Maylor
Organizations
- Boeing