FIRE PERFORMANCE OF COMPOSITES MATERIALS IN A SUBMARINE ENVIRONMENT

FRP MATERIALS ARE USE TO PRODUCE LIGHTWEIGHT, HIGH STRENGTH STRUCTURES WITH EXCELLENT DAMPING, NOISE REDUCTION, AND CORROSION RESISTANT PROPERTIES WHICH MAKE THEM ATTRACTIVE FOR USE IN SUBMARINES.THIS RESEARCH WILL INVESTIGATE POTENTIAL ATMOSPHERIC EFFECTS WHICH MIGHT RESULT FROM FRP USE. SEVERAL CANDIDATE FRP MATERIALS WILL BE USED FOR OUTGASSING AND COMBUSTION EXPERIMENTS AND THE DETERMINATION OF COMBUSTION HEAT GENERATION RATES. THE COMPOSITION AND RELATIVE MAGNITUDE OF GAS AND PARTICULATE EMISSIONS WILL BE DETERMINED USING GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY. RECOMMENDATIONS WILL BE PRESENTED FOR FRP USE AND ASSESSMENT OF FUTURE MATERIALS. ANTICIPATED RESULTS SHOULD INDICATE THE NEWLY MANUFACTURED FRP MATERIALS PRODUCE LOW LEVEL EMISSIONS OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS WHICH SUBSIDE OVER TIME. AT ELEVATED TEMPERATURES, THE RATE OF OUTGASSING IS EXPECTED TO BE HIGHER. THIS EFFECT MAY BE USED IN DEVELOPING A PRETREATMENT PROCESS TO REMOVE VOLATILE COMPONENTS FROM NEW FRP CONSTRUCTIONS. FRP MATERIALS BASED ON GLASS FIBER AND EPOXY ARE EXPECTED TO EXHIBIT THE LOWEST POTENTIAL FOR ATMOSPHERIC CONTAMINATION AND MAY BE THE MOST FEASIBLE FOR INTERNAL SUBMARINE USE.