An apparatus that performs elevated temperature (300-800°C) Oxygen Index ( OI) measurements using radiant heating has been developed and used to perform OI measurements on a variety of high- OI composite materials. Comparisons of data with OI values obtained using a gas preheat device indicate reasonable agreement. Flame propagation down the edges of the samples dominated the burning behavior for many high temperature samples. The physical mechanism of volatile release was identified as the con trolling factor for the OI value for high- OI materials. Delamination, cracking, matrix penetration, foaming, and blistering all led to different burning be havior and different OI characteristics. Long-term aging of composite materials is also a very important contributor to the OI of the material. At tem peratures above 300 ° C OI values were found to be very high as a result of the stable nature of the carbon char remaining after decomposition of the polymeric binder material.
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