Thermal Decomposition and Fire Behavior of Carbon Fiber/Nomex Honeycomb Composite

Vasiliki Papadogianni; Alexandros Romeos; Konstantinos Perrakis; Thrassos Panidis

doi:10.15866/ireme.v15i1.20207

Thermal Decomposition and Fire Behavior of Carbon Fiber/Nomex Honeycomb Composite

Vasiliki Papadogianni⁽¹⁾, Alexandros Romeos⁽²⁾, Konstantinos Perrakis⁽³⁾, Thrassos Panidis^(4*)

^(*) Corresponding author

Authors' affiliations

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15866/ireme.v15i1.20207

Abstract

The thermal decomposition and fire behavior of a Carbon fiber/Nomex honeycomb sandwich, used as partition material in aircrafts, was studied using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and oxygen consumption calorimetry (Cone Calorimeter). TGA results indicated that the thermal decomposition of the exposed material is conducted in two main stages. The identification of the most probable reaction mechanism, based on TGA tests performed at different heating rates of 5, 10, and 20 °C/min, was conducted for the white decorative skin layer. The Ozawa-Flynn-Wall and the Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose methods and their corresponding iterative techniques were used for the estimation of the kinetic parameters, including activation energy, E (kJ/mol−1), and pre-exponential factor, A (m−1). Both methods as well as the iterative techniques gave similar results. Cone calorimeter tests at several incident heat fluxes between 30 to 70 kW/m2, provided information on the reaction to fire characteristics of the material, including Heat Release Rate, mass loss, CO, CO2, and smoke production. At low heat fluxes, material burning proceeded in one stage while at higher fluxes combustion was carried out in two stages, with higher mass loss. The corresponding two stages observed in the CO production curves indicated incomplete combustion during the first stage and smoldering combustion in the second, which intensified close to and after flameout. Cone Calorimeter results and observations were coupled with thermogravimetric analysis to evaluate and analyze the overall thermal behavior of the material.
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Keywords

Reaction to Fire; TGA; Cone Calorimetry; Composite Material

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