Developing a test device to analyze heat transfer through firefighter protective clothing

Abstract

Abstract Understanding the difference between heat transfer in planar and cylindrical configurations is crucial for the precise characterization of heat protective performance of firefighter protective clothing. A new test approach was developed to analyze the heat transfer in protective fabrics. As opposed to existing planar configurations, this improved approach uses a cylindrical configuration to simulate a human body shape. Various levels of heat exposure intensity (8.5, 30, and 84\u202fkW/m2) were applied to examine and compare the heat protective performance of protective fabrics using both configurations. The results demonstrate that the heat flux transmitted from the same heat source to the respective sensor differed between both configurations, yielding significant differences in the predicted time required to generate 2nd degree burn. In general, the burn time was highly dependent upon the thermal properties of the fabric, the air gap size, the skin heat transfer, as well as the exposure duration and intensity. Both configurations also yielded different results during the post-exposure phase, although with opposite signs compared to the exposure phase. We argue that this new cylindrical configuration provides a more scientific and realistic measurement of thermal protective performance of firefighter protective clothing.