design considerations for aluminum hull structures - Ship Structure ...

297able as interliners for mattresses in the United States [12]. The regulatorsshould be aware that changing the test configuration, i.e. by usingcushions, may influence the result of the test.A significant proportion of upholstery fires are initiated by smallflaming sources, i.e., children playing with matches. In the BritishStandard BS 5438, the simulation of a match type flame by using abutane gas burner seems to be realistic and was adopted by the appropriateTechnical Committee of the International Organization forStandardization. As far as the flame application time is concerned, aunanimous agreement could not be reached by the international experts.The French and German experts demanded the flame applicationtime be reduced from 20s to 15s on the grounds that a 15s steadystate butane flame seems to adequately simulate the moving matchflame as shown in Figures 8 and 9.This 15s flame impingement time is required in the relevant GermanStandard and other draft Standards concerning building products andfurniture [15-17].The harmonization of the large ignition sources is much more contentious.The British philosophy is to provide a range of ignition sources toenable the regulator/specifier to select the appropriate level of performance.However, the French and German experts would prefer alimited number of ignition sources that have been selected and welldefined by the experts.It is intended that the effectiveness of the larger ignition sources willbe examined by an international round robin test programme. As far asthe test philosophy is concerned, it seems to be reasonable that theFigure 8. Movement of the flame frontDownloaded from http://jfs.sagepub.com by naian liu on February 16, 2007© 1989 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.