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MARKET OUTLOOK
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- Aircraft (IED)
- Military
- Naval Vessels and Military Vehicles
- Oil and Gas
- Automobile Industry
- Gasoline- and Diesel-fueled Vehicles
- Methanol, Ethanol, and Mixed Fuels
- Propane and Natural Gas Fuels
- Fuel Tanks
Aircraft (IED)
Every year, Boeing and Airbus publish their latest assessment of the demand for world air travel. Their annual assessments estimate the jet airplane capacity to meet projected growth in travel demand, and also the replacement market for older service aircraft. Boeing and Airbus forecast world market demand and airplane supply requirements for the next 10/20 years. Although there is great similarity in their projections, their numbers do not totally agree, with the primary divergence in product mix. Their greatest deviation in the past two years is in the "super jumbo" class of aircraft. Airbus Industries wants in on the "super jumbo" market and Boeing wants to protect their exclusivity with their 747 models. Airbus Industries sees a much larger demand for this class of aircraft than does Boeing and has recently committed to move ahead with their A3XX jumbo jet program.
The Defense Evaluation Research Agency (DERA, an agency in the UK Ministry of Defense) under the auspices of the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have done extensive testing on blast effects mitigation. The major difference in approach between the US Government's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the CAA is that the FAA decided early on that a "hardening" (to allow zero venting from a blast) of the aircraft's baggage containers and/or fuselage was the correct technical solution. That assumption is the "Achilles heel" of the FAA's approach. Not only are the weights and cost penalties of this approach significant, the degree of blast management is the least proficient of those systems tested. BlastWrap® deals with all of the blast effects - the incident and reflected shocks, the Mach Stem shocks, the blast impulse, the blast flame front and blast after-burn. With BlastWrap® the blast energy is actively dissipated rather than passively contained.
The bottom line is that BlastWrap® is NOT armor; armor gets blown away in strong blasts. We reduce the ability of an explosion to damage structures, and we quench the heat. Rapid cooling is critical, because any spilled flammable fluids or escaping gas will reignite, if heat is around.
BlastWrap® is unique in quenching blast areas. BlastWrap® has been proven to suppress propane/air fireballs and explosions, reducing blast pressure more than 50 percent every time. Rooms and containers lined substantially with BlastWrap® reduce the net equivalent charge weight of explosives and propellants by 50 percent, based on our unrivaled understanding of the mechanics of explosions.
Jet aircraft use modified kerosene as fuels. Jet fuels cannot detonate, but can produce major fireballs and, as TWA Flight 800 showed, can allow explosions under certain conditions. The closer to the fuel's flash point, the more likely an explosion or fireball will occur, particularly when there is space for vapor to accumulate.
BlastWrap® in "dry bays" (spaces not containing fuel ) near fuel tanks would suppress fireballs and explosions involving fuel mists and vapors created by fuel tank ruptures and leaks. Specially-engineered (fuel immersion-tolerant) BlastWrap® can be fitted in the roof of tanks to suppress explosions created by projectile penetration and electrical sources.
Without BlastWrap® mitigation, fuel mist fires in dry bays will generally lead to aircraft loss. Ignition sources and fuel spills following crash landings are almost always present, with vapors and sprays filling the lower hold. Projectiles and warhead fragments generally produce fuel sprays in dry bays; the ensuing fire destroys electrical controls and usually spreads.
Military
BlastWrap® does not distinguish between accidents and hostile action; it always functions when there is blast pressure or when a fireball is generated. For ships, surface coverage area is more important than thickness, since the objective is to prevent substantial blast gas pressure from developing. Thus, a 1-inch thickness would be adequate for most spaces; 2 inches in magazine and missile launch compartments. Complete surface coverage is unnecessary, but at least 60 percent is desirable. Additional BlastWrap® near the center are recommended for large compartments, such as turbine engine spaces. These can be installed around the engines and catwalks. Accidents always involve internal sources. Hostile weapons penetrate the hull, either with shaped-charge hot metal jets [some missiles and projectiles], armor-piercing explosive projectiles, or with hot gases following underwater mine or torpedo detonations. Most projectiles and missiles explode after they penetrate, that is, they do not detonate immediately at the hull. Thus, there would be some stand-off between wall-mounted BlastWrap® and the detonation-the ideal location with respect to efficient BlastWrap® mitigation. Hot gases from outside detonations would enter through cracks or ruptures in the hull, so that again, hot gases would quickly spread around a compartment.
Shaped-charge jets produce a narrow penetration, but fuel mist created by rupturing tanks and piping, disperses very rapidly. So, again, what is important is not to have thicker BlastWrap® but to have wider area coverage for optimum protection.
Relatively minor fires suppressed with onboard extinguishing systems, are not a significant market opportunity for BlastWrap®. However, serious fuel-related explosion and fire hazards exist for aircraft, naval vessels, and military vehicles. Major fire and explosion scenarios are created by major impacts or by hostile weapons, which involve large fuel releases and intense ignition source and these are far beyond the ability of conventional fire suppression systems to control. BlastWrap® can prevent most such incidents from becoming disasters, and thus another fuel-related market opportunity exists for these complex systems (ammunition/warhead blast protection market opportunities are discussed in another section).
Other BlastWrap® uses would include munitions manufacturing, handling (load/assembly/pack [LAP] facilities) and storage (a very broad range from large depots to small magazines), explosives/munitions transport (again a wide array of small caliber ammunition to large rockets and missiles), military structures (wide range), military vehicles (land mine protection), shields/revetments and broad demilitarization efforts. Although this market is huge, it is difficult to assess since typical military mind-set has been to accept the dangers of Q-D (quantity/distance offsets depending on explosive charge weights) in transport and use, and even in storage when in any conflict.
Naval Vessels and Military Vehicles
Newer warships often use gas turbine engines, which use the same fuel as jet aircraft. Most of the remaining types use diesel engines, as do most military vehicles and trucks.
Diesel or kerosene-type fuels' vapors can generate explosive pressure in confined spaces. This is less of a problem in ground combat vehicles (where pool fires are more of a threat), but is a serious problem aboard a ship. Both accidents and hostile action can generate a fuel mist in a combined space, which can then ignite the flammable mix. The most likely severe hazard scenario is a fireball involving a fuel mist.
BlastWrap® in locations distributed around a shipboard or a vehicle engine compartment will suppress fireballs and minimize heating of metal surfaces by a flash fire. Because of the low likelihood of an actual explosion, the thickness can be kept to 1 inch maximum and thereby minimize space usage.
Without BlastWrap®, fireballs and flash fires created in fuel mists would rapidly incapacitate any personnel in the compartment. If the compartment is open to outside air (through a hull rupture, missile entrance, or to another compartment), any Halon fire extinguishants (if used) will rapidly escape and the compartment fire will rapidly become uncontrollable.
Oil and Gas
Offshore drilling and production facilities would benefit enormously by employing BlastWrap® technology, providing oil, gas, and the chemical industries with a means of suppressing explosions and minimizing post-blast fire hazards with a convenient structural and/or architectural material. Impinging flame fronts are slowed dramatically and cooled by interacting with BlastWrap® structural combination, acting as virtual blast vents without requiring actual wall penetration.
BlastWrap® may be used as bulkhead and/or deck covering, false walls, partitions and to make enclosures. They also may be used as substitutes for grating, catwalks and gangways, handrails and equipment platforms. A particular effective application will be as substitutes for blowout type relief vents.
The optimum quantity of BlastWrap® depends on the degree of protection required (in terms of over-pressure) and the nature of protection desired (reduction of probability of blast events versus absolute prevention of overpressures exceeding designed wind loads).
For reduction of blast incidents capable of reaching 2 bars (29.4 pounds per square inch ) or more over-pressure, BlastWrap® comprising at least 2.5% of the enclosed volume and 10% of the combined wall and ceiling (not floor/deck) surface area will reduce hydrocarbon gas or atomized liquid deflagration overpressure by at least 50%. These guidelines may need to be altered for acetylene and hydrogen explosions (which have not been used in tests to date) but will be valid for other hydrocarbon fluids.
Automobile Industry
World manufacturing capacity for cars and trucks is now more than 70 million vehicles per year. Ford Motor Corporation announced that the automaker would have a fuel cell-powered vehicles on the market in 2004. Daimler-Chrysler had announced similar plans previously. Other car makers are well-advanced in preparation to produce fuel celled-powered cars and trucks.
Car fires and explosions (resulting from unanticipated failures in fuel tank systems), do happen and cause death in otherwise survivable crashes. NHTSA data reports for 1998 & 1999 indicate that approximately 2% of high-speed crashes result in post-collision fires. Compiled data indicate that each year approximately 300 U.S. citizens die of vehicular fires/explosions. These catastrophes although small in number, not only devastate families but are exceedingly damaging to the reputation of the automobile manufacturing community.
As to the future, we believe that the number of post-collisions fires will surely increase as alternative fuel vehicles are introduced in greater numbers, particularly fuel cell vehicles. The increased fire hazard posed by "alternative fuels" has so far, not been seriously comprehended by their proponents. Several alternative fuels introduce a new potential hazard, namely "explosions." We believe that the automobile industry will soon realize that implementing an effective and active fire safety measures to limit probable life loss and financial loss, is smart business. That by providing higher levels of safety for life and property, can only result in greater consumer confidence and higher corporate profits.
Unlike diesel and gasoline, which cannot explode, commercially viable fuels for fuel cells can. At least for the remainder of this decade, fuel cells will use either hydrogen or methanol. Hydrogen must be produced from methanol in order for methanol to be used (this conversion will take place in a subsystem aboard the vehicle), thus substantial quantities of hydrogen will be present on all fuel-cell vehicles.
Common to all of the alternative fuels is the fact that they will require much larger fuel capacities than gasoline or diesel, in order to provide the same amount of energy (gasoline and diesel have much more energy per pound). Larger fuel tanks on vehicles mean that more tank and piping will be vulnerable to rupture in accidents. Larger size makes tanks intrinsically weaker as well. In an accident (or rupture of a connection, etc., in a pressurized fuel system), fuel will be atomized and will be mixed in a relatively confined location where hot ignition sources will be present; this is the ideal environment for explosions and fireballs to develop. These hazards are not only present on the vehicle, but in the distribution infrastructure. Thus service stations storing and dispensing the fuels, along with tanker trucks hauling the fuels, will all pose hazards on roads and in built-up communities. Design and construction details are very crucial to safe operation of high-pressure and/or cryogenic fluid systems, so numerous leak/fire/explosion events with widespread use of alternative fuel power generation are inevitable.
The opportunities for leaks and ignitions will be huge. Automobiles are not the only markets for fuel cells. A major trend is well underway regarding fuel cell power generation systems for applications ranging from manufacturing plants to cities. Fuel cells will be a major component of the burgeoning market. At this time, there are at least eight major start-ups with systems entering the markets that are backed by substantial venture capital. This business is driven by the shortage of electrical power in many regions, such as California, and the difficulty in approvals for new construction of large power plants. The demands for power will become vastly greater when electric vehicles become commercially viable. Other "alternative" or "green" fuels, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and propane also poses an explosion and/or fireball hazard. BlastWrap® can suppress propane/air fireballs and dramatically reduce blast pressure from propane/air explosions.
BlastWrap® products would dramatically mitigate or suppress fireballs and explosions produced by all of the fuels now being used or considered for commercial introduction, for at least the next two decades. BlastWrap® products for fuel tank systems can prevent most major post-crash fires for vehicles. Major explosions are more likely to be infrequent, even for vehicles using hydrogen as a fuel. However, fireballs and explosions involving natural gas (whether compressed or liquefied), propane, hydrogen and fuel cells will increase in number every year, and certainly could easily exceed the annual number of fatal fire incidents that involved Ford Pintos and GM pickup trucks, which were manufactured with vulnerable side tanks.
Whether for a car, a fuel tanker-trailer, gas station facility, warship, ocean going tanker, or an aircraft, BlastWrap® can be employed to protect against fireballs and explosions. Because of BlastWrap®'s structure, it also provides inherent crush and impact resistance. These capabilities will be tailored to provide complete tank systems, which serve both in their primary role of storing flammable fluids, and in preventing accidents or hostile action from causing major disasters. BlastWrap® can be adapted for the distinctly different service requirements. If the fuel ignites, the fireball then gets snuffed almost instantaneously, keeping the area cool. If there is a fuel spill outside that ignites (such as from another vehicle), BlastWrap® tanks will insulate and protect the internal fuel from outside fire.
Gasoline- and Diesel-fueled Vehicles
Neither gasoline nor diesel fuels are explosive, but both can produce low-pressure fireballs. Gasoline readily produces flammable vapors when warm, thus posing severe hazards with spills or leaks in confined spaces and in tanks with low liquid levels. These heavy vapors remain near ground-level.
BlastWrap® suppress gasoline and diesel fireballs in the same way that they suppress jet fuel and other liquid mist flame fronts. Without BlastWrap®, confined-space ignitions of gasoline and diesel will produce fireballs, which would rapidly engulf most vehicles and make vehicle escape difficult.
BlastWrap® fuel tank systems will prevent rapid boiling of fuels if exposed for long periods to a spill fire. This is accomplished by using proprietary fire barrier coatings and component materials which will not melt or burn. With ordinary fuel tanks, an external fire will cause fuel to vaporize and escape through vents or leaks, rapidly creating fireball conditions. BlastWrap® fuel tank systems will make tank damage very difficult even in severe collisions, further reducing the possibility of an external fire.
Methanol, Ethanol, and Mixed Fuels
In some respects, these fuels are somewhat less likely to produce fireballs as large as gasoline mists and vapors, since these fuels are less volatile. They all can produce fuel mists in accidents just like gasoline, however, leading to similar fireballs and explosions. Furthermore, these fuels remain flammable over a much wider range of fuel: air ratios than gasoline and diesel fuels, thus confined-space fireball hazards (such as under vehicles, in tunnels, etc.) are quite significant. These fuels tend to rise when they become warm, so flash fire and fireball scenarios are somewhat different from gasoline, but there are many severe hazard scenarios nonetheless of practical concern.
BlastWrap® and specially-engineered fuel tank systems would be almost identical to those for gasoline- and diesel-fueled vehicles. Because more of these fuels are required to power a vehicle the same distance as gasoline-fueled vehicles, methanol and ethanol fuel tanks must be larger--making them more vulnerable to damage and more likely to be damaged. BlastWrap® is inherently crush and impact resistant, which will be exploited in fuel tank system design.
Propane and Natural Gas Fuels
Propane and liquefied natural gas ("LNG") are kept at relatively low pressures, but still require cylindrical containers. These fuels flash and rapidly rise when they become warm; they are thus unlike gasoline in this respect, but flammable vapors accumulating at the top of tunnels, parking structures, repair facilities, etc. can produce serious incidents.
Compressed natural gas ("CNG") is generally kept at either 3,000 or 3,600 psi pressure. Thus, it is stored in thick-walled pressure vessels. A tank or fuel line rupture will thus rapidly create a vapor cloud capable of producing a fireball, or under some conditions an explosion. CNG quantities could be substantial, since up to 3 times as much CNG is required to propel a vehicle as gasoline.
The importance of crush and impact resistance is even greater with these fuels. As with methanol and ethanol, 40 to 50 percent more of these fuels are required to propel a vehicle the same distance as a given volume of gasoline or diesel. Because CNG and propane are under pressure, there is a greater chance of fuel line and connection leaks in normal operation and breakaway incidents in collisions. BlastWrap® will suppress fireballs and explosions, and insulate the tanks against external fires involving spilled gasoline, etc.
BlastWrap® fuel tank systems involving these fuels would allow leaks to be kept within a secondary (outer) confinement wall. Pressure tanks would be internal to the BlastWrap® unit, with protective components preventing impact and severe jolting.
Note that BlastWrap® can serve as part of the insulation needed for LNG fuel tanks and piping.
Fuel Tanks
BlastWrap® fuel tanks would be engineered for specific vehicle models in order to fit the geometry set aside for this assembly and to interface with fuel supply line, fuel filler, and sensor wiring locations for impact protection, preferential vent and spill locations for severe tank assembly deformation events, and to suppress any fire or ignition that develops. Overall assemblies would comply completely with applicable SAE and company specifications, such as drain plugs, etc. BlastWrap® automotive products will be completely suitable for continuous hydrocarbon and chemical immersion tolerance. These will be furnished with external fire barrier coatings, which satisfy the same fire resistance ratings that are used for the most severe offshore process facility applications (e. g. fire divisions). BlastWrap® is inherently crush resistant. Overall tank assembly design would maximize impact tolerance and would be optimized for the particular vehicle model. One should note that if the entire BlastWrap® tank assembly were ripped loose from its mounting, leakage would be insufficient to burn the vehicle; little fluid could either escape the tank assembly or drain from the severed fuel supply line. In a scenario, where only a small amount of fuel is present in the BlastWrap® tank, BlastWrap® components would extinguish and thus prevent a burning back into the assembly through the fuel supply line. For most cars and light trucks, BlastWrap® assemblies would cost roughly a gallon in storage capacity. BlastWrap® volume would be somewhat proportional to vehicle volume, having the least impact on larger, single-tank vehicles. One should note that BlastWrap® could contribute substantially to crash resistance as well as fire safety for light trucks, Suburbans, vans, mini vans and contribute even more if used in overall vehicle engineering and system integration. One important fact must be repeated: BlastWrap® is not an extinguishing agent. Our products are entirely passive in function; there are no sensors, no valves or distribution systems, nor activation hardware. No periodic tests are involved. BlastWrap® products designed for automotive use would be bolt-on assemblies, and would be treated as any conventional tank with regard to replacement or service. They will be designed for a service life as long as any other warranted component sold by GM. In addition to fuel tank assemblies, we would propose BlastWrap® for engine compartment use. Specifically, attach BlastWrap® to the underside of hoods and as firewall "insulation" to suppress fireball formation and simultaneously serve as a fire barrier for the passenger compartment.
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