Fire Resistant Joiner Bulkhead

Fire represents a grave hazard to Navy vessels. Recent fire events have propagated through joiner bulkheads and resulted in significant fire damage, which poses a substantial threat to personnel and equipment. Uncontrolled fires can propagate throughout a ship and cause extensive damage to machinery, equipment, and ship compartments; additionally, fires represent an extreme risk to ship personnel. The Navy has made numerous improvements to make ships more fire-resistant but is seeking improvement for containment of compartment-level fire events seen in recent and historical ship fires (i.e., USS OSCAR AUSTIN, USS CONYNGHAM, USS STARK, and the cruise ship Star Princess). More fire-resistant joiner bulkheads would allow damage control teams to contain and extinguish fires more easily before they could grow to threaten the ship. Innovation is needed to meet Navy goals with regard to weight, cost, fit, and performance. The Navy seeks an improved fire-resistant joiner bulkhead that would reduce the damage ships sustain during fires, as well as improve safety for the crew. Development of a fire-resistant joiner bulkhead faces several technical challenges. First, any fire-resistant joiner bulkhead must not have a significant weight increase. Given the quantity of joiner bulkheads onboard ships, any weight increase could add significant weight to the ships, which will impair and degrade ship performance. Second, the improved joiner bulkheads must not excessively exceed the width of current joiner bulkheads. Destroyers have confined spaces and for the comfort and operational capability of the crew, any new joiner bulkhead cannot greatly exceed the dimensions of the existing panels. Third, any fire-resistant joiner bulkhead must be a cost-effective solution for the Navy. In particular, the fire-resistant joiner bulkhead must not substantially increase the costs to install at the shipyard. The reason for this concern is that joiner bulkheads sometimes require modification at the shipyards to fit the exact dimensions of the ship. Any solution that requires expensive edge treating or would otherwise be cost-prohibitive to modify at the shipyards will not be considered. Lastly, the improved joiner bulkhead must meet or exceed the requirements to be certified for shock and fire performance as AN-30 class per MIL-STD-3020 and pass Navy Fire, Smoke, Toxicity (FST) testing per MIL-STD-1623. This is a vital requirement to demonstrate that any new material in the joiner bulkhead will not release dangerous particulates as it burns or fails if there is an impact. Research into fire-resistant materials has revealed several technology advances in the areas of intumescent coatings, coatings that incorporate nanomaterials to aid in thermal regulation, or advanced high-performance fibers; however, there is no current commercial solution available. The Navy is also open to bio-composites, bio-polymers, or other materials that have the potential to provide superior fire-resistance with reduced toxicity as compared to many commercially available products.