After the US, France now also has the necessary equipment to conduct fire resistance tests on aircraft engines. So reports the French business newspaper Le Figaro.
The platform for aircraft engine fire research will be located at the French National Center for Aerospace Research (ONERA), 15 km south of Toulouse. The center, founded in 1968, plays a central role in European aerospace research.
European first
Until now, European aerospace manufacturer Airbus has always had to travel to the US to conduct fire resistance tests on its aircraft. After all, only the FAA, the American aviation regulator, has such equipment.
This is now changing because, from now on, the French Aerospace Research Center (ONERA) in Toulouse also has such a platform to study the risk of fire in aircraft engines by anticipating the impact of composite materials and hydrogen. Unlike the US regulator, however, the equipment is used only for research purposes, not for certification purposes.
“Unique testing capability”
The PyCoFire (Pyrénées Composite Fire Research) platform, located at its Fauga-Mauzac site and representing an investment of 14 million euros, features the world’s first research equipment capable of simulating and analyzing realistic fire scenarios in the engine compartment at full scale.
According to Bruno Sainjon, CEO of ONERA, “having such a unique testing capability is an important strategic asset for Europe and for France,” just to prevent the risk of industrial espionage, for example.
Composites
What is special about the PyCoFire test facility is that it is designed to test and analyze the fire behavior of new aircraft materials, particularly composites, in engine compartments that Airbus and Safran, two major backers, for example, might want to use in the future.
Traditionally, in aviation, metal has been used mainly; however, a new aircraft material, such as composite, is made up of a sequence of layers of fibers connected by resin. In the event of a fire, the resin will degrade and generate gas bubbles. This creates blisters that become ignited. This phenomenon, for example, is much more complex to simulate digitally than metal, and precisely because so little is known about fire behavior, engineers and scientists want to further test and analyze it.
Environmental friendliness
An added benefit of the platform is that it can simulate an airport fire at extreme temperatures, ranging from very cold to very hot, as well as various airflow conditions.
It also provides the opportunity to develop and evaluate innovative, environmentally friendly extinguishing technologies. For example, the extinguishing gas Halon is extremely effective but highly polluting, and its use will eventually be banned in aviation.
The platform will also be utilized as part of the European Concerto program to investigate the effects of hydrogen leaks on an aircraft.
