Innovative Carbon Foams for Structural Fire Protection

Touchstone Research Laboratory is proposing to develop CFOAM-LW precursor carbon foam that can be used as structural fire protection on Navy ships. CFOAM-LW precursor carbon foam has the potential to significantly reduce weight and installation costs over current state-of-the-art material systems. Foams have been made with densities as low as 2lb/ft3. The Phase I effort will focus on doing experimental carbonization heat treatments of carbon foam and will then study the fire properties via non-combustibility testing and mechanical properties. At the end of Phase I, resulting optimized CFOAM-LW precursor carbon foam will be selected for qualification testing in Phase II.