scope:

Description of Driving Event:

The propellant fire on November 27, 1982 at the Arnold Engineering Development Center, Tullahoma, Tennessee was a result of cutting propellants on the floor of a vertical test cell designated J4. The propellant being cut was the M-X stage II propellant. It was a class 1.3, 88 percent weight solids, HTPB, non-HMX propellant. The propellant had been subjected to rapid depressurization as the result of the M-X stage II motor failure November 17, 1982. In addition, the propellant fell approximately 250 feet to a concrete floor. The propellant was submerged under 50 feet of water for three days. After the water was pumped off, broken pieces of propellant that could be easily handled and the sludge were removed. The remaining large pieces were being cut to manageable sizes using a procedure patterned after that used for cutting minuteman propellant. At the time of the fire the propellant had been drying for six days. It was established that the propellant sludge had gotten dry and that the most likely cause of ignition was either impact or friction.