Abstract
This paper presents new proposals in the evaluation and determination of the optimum materials suitable for use in the design and development of firefighter protective clothing by simultaneously addressing the conflicting factors of thermal protection [heat transfer index (HTI), radiant heat transfer index (RHTI) and thermal threshold index (TTI)] and anti-heat stress [water vapor resistance (WVR) and total heat loss (THL)]. To achieve this, this paper proposes new indices for the materials, two types of “total performance” indices, which are defined as the sum and the product of the competing factors of thermal protection and anti-heat stress. The results showed that the candidate materials of firefighter protective clothing were easily rated when the new indices were applied. Of five candidate materials viz. A, B, B1, B2 and C, the B sample, with values for HTI24 = 13.2 ± 0.2 s, RHTI24 = 18.0 ± 0.8 s, TTI = 1132 ± 33 J/m2, WVR = 17.5 ± 0.3 m2 Pa/W and THL = 266.2 ± 4.1 W/m2, was found to exhibit the best total performance. However, the methods proposed to the scientific community in this paper have so far been validated on a limited data set only, and will require further validation by a wider group of researchers and with more samples. Lastly, comments on ISO 11999-3:2015 were also made for the further improvement and development of technical standards.
Highlights
There are two conflicting requirements that need to be addressed when designing and developing protective clothing for firefighters
The two competing requirements viz. the performance of thermal protection (P-Total Performance’’ (TP)) and the performance of anti-heat stress (P-AHS) for firefighter protective clothing should be considered together when selecting materials to use in the design and construction of the life-saving protective clothing to minimize the possibility of firefighter fatalities
Dry-heat transfers such as conduction, radiation and convection occur in both processes of thermal protection and heat stress while their directions are opposite as shown in Fig. 4, resulting in P-TP and P-AHS are conflicted with each other
Summary
There are two conflicting requirements that need to be addressed when designing and developing protective clothing for firefighters. The clothing must sufficiently block the heat from a fire to protect the firefighter against burning whilst effectively dissipating the metabolic heat generated to the environment to prevent heat stress [1, 2]. More importantly, both competing requirements should be simultaneously considered when designing and developing protective clothing for firefighters to ensure their health and safety together. The two competing requirements viz. the performance of thermal protection (P-TP) and the performance of anti-heat stress (P-AHS) for firefighter protective clothing should be considered together when selecting materials to use in the design and construction of the life-saving protective clothing to minimize the possibility of firefighter fatalities
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