The Potential for Pulmonary Heat Injury Resulting from the Activation of a Cabin Water Spray System to Fight Aircraft Cabin Fires.

Abstract

A cabin water spray system (CWSS) has been suggested as a means of attenuating the severity of smoke and fire commonly associated with aircraft accidents. All aspects of passenger and cabin safety must be considered when evaluating a new safety system or concept. The purposes of this report are to briefly review the pathophysiological changes occurring in the respiratory system as a result of thermal injury and to quantitatively estimate the risk of creating a more hazardous cabin environment by activation of CWSS. Changes in the heat content of the cabin atmosphere resulting from CWSS activation were calculated using parameters consistent with current aircraft and proposals for CWSS design. The results suggest that only a very small volume of the aircraft cabin would have an increase in heat content that could result in thermal injury.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1995
Accession Number
ADA295511

Entities

People

  • Robert P. Garner

Organizations

  • Federal Aviation Administration

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircraft Cabins
  • Aircrafts
  • Burns
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Chemical Warfare Agents
  • Combustion
  • Enthalpy
  • Environment
  • Health Services
  • Heat Energy
  • Larynx
  • Latent Heat
  • Lung Diseases
  • Phase
  • Thermal Burns
  • United States
  • Water Vapor

Readers

  • Aviation Safety Risk Assessment.
  • Fire Suppression Systems Design.