Effects of ambient condition on flame spread over a thin PMMA sheet

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Effects of ambient condition on flame spread over a thin PMMA sheet

Takahashi, S. / Nagumo, T. / Wakai, K. / Bhattacharjee, S.

Recently, space development becomes more active, and the International Space Station (ISS), which is concerned with 16 countries, is now under construction in orbit. In the space laboratory like ISS, the gravity level is very small and the oxygen level may be set higher than that on the earth. In such confined environment, the accidental fire is very dangerous. Therefore, it is very important to investigate the flame spread over a solid material. The flame spread rates over PMMA sheets are measured throughout the thin and the thick regimes with varying oxygen level and pressure in normal-gravity. The prediction by Extended Simplified Theory (EST) shows good agreement with the experimental results in the thermal regime where relatively high opposed-flow exists. In micro-gravity, the spread rate over thin PMMA sheets is measured with varying opposed-flow velocity and oxygen level. When the opposed-flow velocity is very low, the thermal regime assumption breaks down so that the radiative effect becomes significant. As the radiative effect appears, the mass diffusion layer grows faster than the thermal layer, and the flame spread is suppressed due to the shortage of oxygen. On the other hand, if the oxygen level is high and/or thickness of the fuel is sufficiently thin, the radiative effect is negligible and the steady spread is established even in a quiescent environment.