Theoretical and experimental study of vapor deposition onto a dressed body part

Abstract

AbstractWhen air‐permeable clothing is worn, vapor will penetrate to the inside of the clothing. The vapor can deposit onto the skin, thus, forming a potential health threat. In a previous article a model was presented, which describes the airflow around body parts, covered with clothing. This airflow profile is used to calculate the vapor deposition onto the skin. A test setup was developed to validate the deposition model. Cylinders are used as a representative for human body parts. They are covered by a layer of protective clothing and exposed to vapor of methylsalicylate. The amount of vapor which deposites onto the surface of the cylinder is determined by using charcoal cloth. The influence of the clothing air permeability, the wind speed, the diameter of the cylinder, and the distance between clothing and cylinder surface was investigated. The experimental results show reasonable to good agreement with the model. © 2008 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2008