Preliminary Burn and Impact Tests of Hybrid Polymeric Composites.
Abstract
Recent studies have shown that free graphite fibers released into the environment from resin matrix composite components, as a result of fire and/or explosion, pose a potential hazard to electrical equipment. An approach to prevent the fibers from becoming airborne is to use hybrid composite materials which retain the fibers at the burn site. Test results are presented for three hybrid composites that were exposed to a simulation of an aircraft fire and explosion. The hybrid systems consisted of 16 plies of graphite-epoxy with two plies of Kevlar-, S-glass-, or boron-epoxy on each face. Two different test environments were used. In one environment, specimens were heated by convection only, and then impacted by a falling mass. In the other environment, specimens were heated by convection and by radiation, but were not impacted. The convective heat flux was about 100-120 kW/sq m in both environments and the radiative flux was about 110 kW/sq m. A large quantity of graphite fibers was airborne upon impact of graphite epoxy and the Kevlar-graphite hybrid specimens which had been subjected to the burn tests. Significantly fewer airborne graphite fibers resulted from the impact of burned boron- and glass-graphite hybrid specimens. The relative performance of each hybrid was the same in the two environments. jg
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1978
- Accession Number
- ADA305262
Entities
People
- Stephen S. Tompkins
- William D. Brewer
Organizations
- Langley Research Center