| dc.description.abstract | There exists some uncertainty at present, in the formulation of civil
defense doctrine, as to whether it is advisable for window curtains to be
closed or open during nuclear attack. Closed curtains would be in position
to intercept some major portion, or all, of the thermal radiation pulse that
would otherwise enter through the window and ignite kindling fuels within
the room. But because they did so they would probably ignite and the
flaming curtains, propelled into the room by the blast wave, could represent
an even more serious ignition hazard than would occur if the window remained
uncovered, and the curtains uninvolved. Because of this uncertainty,
limited investigation, was undertaken to gain information concerning the
ignition hazard represented by burning curtain fragments carried on a blast
wave into typical urban interiors.
The specific objective of the research described in this report was to
investigate the propensity of burning curtains, carried into typical urban
interiors by blast waves, to cause ignitions within the interiors capable
of leading to flashover. The situation simulated in the experiments was one
in which the closed curtains, having been ignited by thermal radiation from
a nuclear weapon explosion, were carried, still burning, into a room in
which none of the kindling fuels had been ignited owing to interception of
most of the thermal pulse by the curtains. The blast wave, transporting
the burning curtain fragments, was assumed to originate from the same weapon
producing the thermal pulse, so that an appropriate delay time intervened,
in each experiment, between curtain ignition and blast arrival. | en |
