Fire hazard assessment in submarine plastic waste stowage compartments

The paper discusses the results of fire tests designed to quantify the haza rds associated with the onboard stowage of the plastic waste bags in propos ed stowage compartments for two submarine classes. Ignition tests were cond ucted with the waste bags outside the compartment. Fire growth and fire ext inguishment tests were conducted with the bags inside the compartment with the door open and with the door closed. The test results indicate that the bags are difficult to ignite. Flame spread radially into the bag is difficu lt because of compaction of the contents. With the door open, fire in the s towage compartment can grow to about a 600 KW fire if the forced ventilatio n was off or 400 KW fire if the ventilation was on. In each case the fire p roduced very thick smoke in the early stages. In the closed-door tests, the fire was oxygen limited whether the ventilation was on or off and and the maximum heat release rate was about 1/3 that with the door open. Tn the par tially closed door compartment test the fire was also oxygen limited and th e maximum heat release rate was of the order of 200 KW. Therefore, fire haz ard will be greatly reduced if the door is closed and the forced ventilatio n is secured. In every test, the fire at its worst stage is controllable in less than one minute using one unit of bottled Aqueous Film-Forming Foam ( AFFF) or a 1.9 cm water hose line. There is, however, a need to thoroughly overhaul the fire after the flames are out.