Numerical simulation of the influence of fabric’s motion on protective clothing performance during flash fire exposure

Abstract

The motion of a person wearing protective clothing induces the clothing to move periodically towards the skin causing a cyclic variation in the air gap between the fabric and the skin. At the same time, the clothing movement causes cooling air to periodically flow into the air gap between the fabric and the skin. This paper uses a finite volume model to investigate these two effects and the resultant effect of the protective clothing movement on its performance during flash fire exposure. Special attention is drawn to the air gap model since it responds directly to the clothing movement. A parametric study is carried out to investigate the influence of a wider range of clothing movement. Specifically, the effect of the variation in the periodic movement frequency and amplitude on the clothing performance was investigated. The results show that increasing the movement frequency improves the clothing protective performance, while increasing the movement amplitude worsens the clothing performance.