2014 Volume 56 Issue 175 Pages 47-58
Better understanding on material flammability to prevent the fire accident is a vital issue. In this article, representative material flammability tests (LOI, UL94, Cone calorimeter, NASA-STD-6001B) for fire safety evaluation are briefly reviewed and classification of the fire-safeness in each test is presented. It is important to stress out that the classification strongly depends on the test method because the test is designed to judge the specific aspects of the fire; e.g., ignitability, flammability, toxicity etc. For ensuring the fire safety in space, the “worst” case scenario is always taken into account to evaluate the material flammability since the space habitants shall be highly-secured from any fire accident, which potentially causes catastrophic disaster. However, it is suspected that the “worst” scenario considered so far can be even worse depending on gravity, so that the new regulation is needed to establish. As summarized, current evaluation method can ensure specific aspect of fire safety so that systematic understanding and evaluation is necessary. It is believed that the systematic development of new test and evaluation method for material flammability and introduction of new guideline to cover the any potential causes of fire is mandatory task.
