Research on Solid Material Flammability by using Short-term Microgravity Facility

Abstract

The essential role of microgravity experiments for understanding solid material flammability is discussed based on the mechanism to determine limiting oxygen concentration to sustain spreading flame over solid material. Then some examples of significant extension of flammability limit of solid material in microgravity are introduced, which are given by short-term microgravity facilities. The limitation of short-term microgravity tests and necessity of long-term microgravity experiments are also described according to the example of large time scale unsteady phenomena included in the combustion process. At the last part of the present report, ongoing research project including ISS/KIBO experiments to build up a new fire safety standard is introduced.