Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Research into the burning characteristics of various substances and materials in zero gravity, or to be precise in microgravity (g ? 0), is known as one of the critical directions of combustion theory. Efforts in this area are required to solve practical problems concerning fire safety of space vehicles (SV)1-4. Research of the combustion behaviour of materials in microgravity has been considerably intensified in connection with designing the International Space Station (ISS) and other planetary facilities 5-9. This work presents the Russian research findings relating to the material combustion behaviour in microgravity. These findings have determined a new avenue of SV fire safety engineering. Microgravity has been therewith produced using an airborne laboratory, a free falling container, and a land-based apparatus “Two-dimensional channel”. With the help of this equipment a burning process has been simulated by eliminating natural convection in a two-dimensional horizontally moving gaseous layer in an experimental apparatus “Skorost” aboard the Mir space station.