Development of a fire test facility for graphite fiber-reinforced composites

A number of modifications were added to the Model 25 facility to make it specifically applicable for composite material screening tests. Most significant was the development of hardware for trapping fibers released during test and isolating them for quantitative measurement. Capability was added for increasing test section velocities and increasing the range of air/fuel ratios available from very rich to very lean. A provision was added for agitation of the test specimen and the combustion gases by a pulsating gas supply. A variety of specimen configurations was evaluated by an extensive series of tests on a graphite-epoxy reference composite which is representative of material currently used in advanced aircraft. A standard test technique and specimen configuration were established which was satisfactory for the reference composite. A test program was then performed on several alternate composite materials to verify the validity of the test method for relative evaluation of a variety of composite materials.