TITLE:
EXFires - Exploration Fire Safety
DESCRIPTION:
The present assumptions of safety based on normal gravity tests and protocols and extrapolated to microgravity or partial gravity on the basis of modelling tools have been demonstrated to carry significant uncertainty. Furthermore, all existing modelling tools that enable extrapolation of empirical results to real microgravity or partial gravity performance have been challenged by the emergence of phenomena normally ignored because they are masked by buoyancy. The work conducted on smaller samples and for shorter experimental durations has shown that fire behaviour in low-gravity is very different from that in normal-gravity, with differences observed for flammability limits, spread behaviour, flame colour and flame structure. Therefore, the goal of EXFires is on material flammability and fire tests in microgravity at an appropriate scale to understand the microgravity fire science sufficiently for adequate safety design and model development.
The principal impact of the EXFires project will be the production of a complete and unique set of data that enables the development of forecasting tools for a holistic fire safety design for future space missions. As the focus is on longer, human flights, input data for model development will be generated through studies of the flammability of materials in enhanced oxygen environments in microgravity and partial gravity. This will be facilitated through a series of ground-based microgravity, partial gravity and normal-gravity experiments that will maximise the return of scheduled ESA/NASA flight experiments, and experiments conducted in the facilities of European National Space agencies (CNES & ZARM).
The principal impact of the EXFires project will be the production of a complete and unique set of data that enables the development of forecasting tools for a holistic fire safety design for future space missions. As the focus is on longer, human flights, input data for model development will be generated through studies of the flammability of materials in enhanced oxygen environments in microgravity and partial gravity. This will be facilitated through a series of ground-based microgravity, partial gravity and normal-gravity experiments that will maximise the return of scheduled ESA/NASA flight experiments, and experiments conducted in the facilities of European National Space agencies (CNES & ZARM).
DURATION:
2022/10/01 - 2024/10/01
FUNDING:
ESA- EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
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