Scientific support for an orbiter middeck experiment on solid surface combustion

The objective is to determine the mechanism of gas-phase flame spread over solid fuel surfaces in the absence of any buoyancy or externally imposed gas-phase flow. Such understanding can be used to improve the fire safety aspects of space travel by providing information that will allow judicious selections of spacecraft materials and environments to be made. The planned experiment consists of measuring the flame spread rate over thermally thin and thermally thick fuels in a closed container in the low-gravity environment of the Space Shuttle. Measurements consist of flame spread rate and shape obtained from two views of the process as recorded on movie film and surface and gas-phase temperatures obtained from fine-wire thermocouples. The temperature measurements along with appropriate modeling provide information about the gas-to-solid heat flux. Environmental parameters to be varied are the oxygen concentration and pressure.