Clothing sets with thermoregulation function for mine rescuers

Abstract

Mine rescuers’ work is associated with many extreme hazards, including difficult climatic conditions. At the same time, the clothing and cooling systems that they use are still too ineffective in terms of dissipating excess heat from the body, which sometimes leads to overheating and consequent death of a rescuer due to heat stroke. These factors constituted an impulse to undertake work towards the development of new, effective in terms of cooling and protective properties, clothing sets for mine rescuers. This publication presents two alternative clothing sets developed in the RESCLO project, made up of outer protective clothing, used along with one of the two underwear variants, ie. underwear with inserts with phase change material (PCM) or underwear with air-fed cooling system from the air receiver. These solutions ensure compatibility with the additional equipment of the rescuer and provide the possibility of ad hoc configuration of clothing sets depending on the conditions of the action and the threats. Laboratory tests have shown that depending on the tested variant, the thermoregulatory solutions used allow for heat dissipation from the rescuer's body at the level of up to 30 W/m2, which will have a positive effect on the safety of mine rescuers during the operation and extend their safe working time in the underground hot environment.