Experimental Study of Fire Behavior in a Depressurized Aircraft Cargo Compartment

Abstract

To analyze the fire behavior in the dynamic pressure environment, a series of n-heptane pool fire experiments were conducted in an 8.11m × 4.16m × 1.67m simulated aircraft cargo compartment. The compartment is capable of mimicking flight environment from taking off to landing of the aircraft according to the standards of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by a pressure control system. Pool fires with 30cm diameter were tested under the dynamic pressure from 101kPa to 45kPa with various depressurization rates of 10kPa/min, 15kPa/min, 20kPa/min and 25kPa/min. Fire behavior such as burning rate, oscillation frequency and flame temperature were analyzed. The results revealed that the dynamic pressure influences the burning rate not only during the depressurization stage but also after depressurization. The oscillation frequency increases with the pressure decrease but has no relationship with depressurization rate. The flame temperature at different heights shows various tendencies with pressure.