Abstract
On a television show, a pre-cooled bare-skinned person (TV host) passed through engulfing kerosene flames. The assumption was that a water film should protect him during 0.74 s flame exposure in an environment of 86 kW/m2 heat flux. The TV host got light burn inflammation on the back, arms and legs. The present work studies skin temperatures and burn damage integral of such dangerous flame exposure. The skin temperature distribution during water spray pre-cooling, transport to the flames, flame exposure, transport to the water pool, and final water pool cooling is modelled numerically. Details of the temperature development of the skin layers are presented, as well as the associated damage integral. It is shown that 5 °C water spray applied for a 30 s period pre-cooled the skin sufficiently to prevent severe skin injury. Soot marks indicate that the water layer evaporated completely in some areas resulting in skin flame contact. This exposed dry skin directly to the flames contributing significantly to the damage integral. It is further analyzed how higher water temperature, shorter pre-cooling period or longer flame exposure influence the damage integral. It is evident that minor changes in conditions could lead to severe burns and that high heat flux levels at the end of the exposure period are especially dangerous. This flame stunt should never be repeated.
Highlights
After World War II, a series of important studies on the effects of thermal skin injury was published in The American Journal of Pathology
The numerical model, which has been used by other researchers, e.g., [35,36,37], was shown to give valuable information about skin temperature development and damage integral
Skin temperature distribution during pre-cooling, transport to the flames, flame exposure, transport to the water pool, and final water pool cooling for a concrete case presented on public
Summary
After World War II, a series of important studies on the effects of thermal skin injury was published The American Pathology These articles heat and through, After in World. War II, Journal a seriesofof important studies on included the effects oftransport thermal to, skin injury was published in The American Journal of Pathology These articles included heat transport to, and through, porcine skin, as well as temperature recordingsThese [2]. After World War II, a series of important studies on the effects of thermal skin injury was published in The American Journal of Pathology These articles included heat transport to, and through, porcine skin, as well as temperature recordings [2]. The concept is that the physics should protect the TV-host from the dangers he is challenging. A short video for the international audience is available at [1].
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