US NAVY RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS IN FIRE PERFORMANCE OF MATERIALS

Under the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) sponsorship, the Naval Surface Warfare Center/Carderock Divi sion (NSWC/CD) and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have been study ing fire related issues for composite materials in collaboration with industry, universities, research institutions, and other government ag encies. The application of composite in U.S. Navy ships offers the pot ential for significant reductions in weight and signatures. Furthermor e, the excellent seawater corrosion resistance of certain composite ma terial systems can significantly reduce maintenance and life cycle cos ts. To quantify these benefits, the Navy has designed and built protot ype structures and validated their performance consistent with critica l mission requirements, such as shock and fire resistance. This paper highlights material development programs focused in the area of fire p erformance, prediction and prevention. It is the goal of these efforts to establish an understanding of how critical composite structures wi ll perform during a fire, identify new materials to fire harden compos ites, and develop predictive methods for assessing post-fire thermal d amage. An essential product of this program will be analytical tools f or the design community to ensure structural integrity and fire safe d esigns for Navy ships. The technologies derived from these research an d development programs generally are transitioned to shipboard applica tions through advanced development and/or technology demonstration pro jects. Examples of such projects will be briefly discussed with emphas is on cost effective solutions that make transition of advanced compos ites technology to the Fleet easier, faster, and safer.