Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military
From: gwh%earthquake.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Aluminum Ships (Was: Re: USS IOWA)
Summary: Nope!
Message-ID: <1990Jun28.025954.19601@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 28 Jun 90 02:59:54 GMT
References: <1990Jun27.021037.1449@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: ucb
Lines: 29
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: gwh%earthquake.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert)

In article <1990Jun27.021037.1449@cbnews.att.com> creps@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Steve Creps) writes:
>   I thought Sheffield was lost because she was made of aluminum, which was
>ignited by the burning missile (metallic Al will burn at high enough
>temperature- you can ignite an aluminum can with a blowtorch, for example).
>This isn't going to happen with a steel ship like the Iowa.

I would like to know where this rumor started... 8-)

Aluminum in ship structures does not burn in shipboard fires.  It has once,
maybe, it's suspected, but it is not a general consideration at all.

What _is_ a concern is the thermal conductivity and resistance of structural
aluminum in ships.  It apparently lets heat though better than the steel that
it would be replacing, letting fires jump from compartment to compartment
better, and thus Aluminum ships are less resistant to fires than Steel ones.

It also melts at a lower temperature, which will let fires propogate _much_
more readlily if they get this hot.  It's strength in general drops more
in a fire also, leading to a higher likelyhood of structural problems.

  == George William Herbert  ==       I support Open-Access Computing! UCB OCF 
 == JOAT for Hire: Anything, ===   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
=======Anywhere, My Price.=======     Quantum Mechanics can explain everything
 ==   gwh@ocf.berkeley.edu    ==  except Madonna, Flame Wars, and NASA's space
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