Quantitative assessment of the relationship between radiant heat exposure and protective performance of multilayer thermal protective clothing during dry and wet conditions

Abstract

The beneficial effect of clothing on a person is important to the criteria for people exposure to radiant heat flux from fires. The thermal protective performance of multilayer thermal protective clothing exposed to low heat fluxes during dry and wet conditions was studied using two designed bench-scale test apparatus. The protective clothing with four fabric layers (outer shell, moisture barrier, thermal linear and inner layer) was exposed to six levels of thermal radiation (1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10kW/m2). Two kinds of the moisture barrier (PTFE and GoreTex) with different vapor permeability were compared. The outside and inside surface temperatures of each fabric layer were measured. The fitting analysis was used to quantitatively assess the relationship between the temperature of each layer during thermal exposure and the level of external heat flux. It is indicated that there is a linear correlation between the temperature of each layer and the radiant level. Therefore, a predicted equation is developed to calculate the thermal insulation of the multilayer clothing from the external heat flux. It can also provide some useful information on the beneficial effects of clothing for the exposure criteria of radiant heat flux from fire.