Cookoff Results of Sub-Scale Hazard Division 1.3 Propellant Samples

A hazardous materials siting effort by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD), Hughes & Associates, Inc., and Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK), indicated that inadvertent ignition of a rocket in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) might cause other rockets in the facility to burn. Currently, the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) builds and stores rockets in the VAB. The Constellation Program, which was to replace the Shuttle, would have assembled and stored a much greater amount of Hazard Division 1.3 material in the VAB. In order to accurately determine the hazard to the VAB due to this new amount of material, an analysis and modeling study was conducted. Two scenarios were considered. The first was ignition of other rockets due to hot combustion products entering the bore of the other motors. The second was the ignition of other rockets from heat flux penetrating through the motor case. Of these two, the most likely scenario was deemed to be ignition through the motor bore. However, no data existed for time to ignition through the case of a large rocket motor at flux levels representative of a cookoff situation. Ignition was modeled for both scenarios. In the through-the-case model, the heat flux that would be applied to the case of a motor was estimated to be 300 kW/m2. Further modeling indicated that the time to ignition through the case of the motor would be approximately 4 minutes. See also ADM002313. Presented at the Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board Seminar (34th) held in Portland, Oregon on 13-15 July 2010, The original document contains color images.