FIRE HAZARDS ASSOCIATED WITH THE USE OF TITANIUM IN AIRCRAFT

Historically, titanium and its alloys have been proven capable of performing efficiently and satisfactorily in both airframe and aircraft gas-turbine engines. Nevertheless, under certain conditions, titanium and its alloys are known to be capable of ignition and combustion. This note was prepared to review the conditions under which the ignition and combustion of aircraft components were most likely to occur as well as to assess the actual incidences of such fires. Laboratory tests have shown that sheets of commercially pure titanium and several of its alloys can be ignited in air using an oxyacetylene torch and heating these materials to their melting temperatures about 3000 F. The sensitivity of titanium toward ignition and combustion in oxygen atmospheres increases with increasing oxygen pressure and concentration such that with sufficiently high pressures and concentrations, burning can occur at appreciably lower temperatures.