Project Title: Fire safety of Epoxy Aviation Composites

Principal Investigator: Associate Prof. Song Lei

Funding Source: National Natural Science Foundation of China

Project Period: 2011-2013

Abstract:

Aiming at the potential fire hazard arisen from the flammability of the epoxy resin-based aircraft composite materials widely using in aviation, in this project, based on the research approach of the combination of the theories of the material design and the fire safety engineering，suitable epoxy resins, curing agents containing phosphorus and inorganic synergist are chosen to synthesize several epoxy-based aviation composites. The thermal-mechanical properties, combustion characteristics, toxic and hazardous gas generation and char-forming characteristics of these materials are studied, specially the investigation of the mechanical strength, ease of ignition, self-extinguishing, heat release rate, total heat release, smoke toxicity, smoke release rate，the char layer composition, structure, morphology and yield rate at different temperatures and oxygen concentrations, to obtain the characteristic parameters of the specific stages during the combustion of needed materials, explore the relationship and the threshold among these parameters, and evaluate the potential fire hazard of the materials based on the above condition using several original or derived evaluation indexes; The effects of materials composition, structure, morphology and combustion condition on pyrolysis, combustion, smoke releasing, char-forming characteristics and fire safety, investigation of the intrinsic relationship among macroscopically fire safety, microscopic pyrolysis and microscopic combustion mechanism are studied to put forward the optimization design scheme for the epoxy-based aviation composites, and to establish theoretical and experimental principles for the application of high-performance epoxy-based aviation composites.