Abstract
Abstract The stored energy provided by the fabric assemblies will greatly influence the thermal protection performance (TPP) of firefighters’ protective clothing under low-intensity radiation heat exposure. In this study, two test methods, namely radiant protective performance (RPP) and stored energy test (SET), were used to investigate the TPP of the fabric assemblies. The results indicated that TSET value was lower than TRPP value because of the release of the stored energy in the fabric assemblies after heat exposure. Increasing the fabric layer numbers, air gap between the fabric assemblies would increase the time of TRPP and TSET, indicating that the thermal stored energy weakened the TPP of the firefighters’ protective clothing. Moreover, the TRPP and TSET of the fabric system would be increased when the moisture barrier was cut in the fabric combination system. These findings suggested that stored energy should be considered in analyzing the TPP of fabric assemblies..
Highlights
The thermal protection performance (TPP) of firefighters’ protective clothing against radiation heat is a critical property for multilayer fabric system, especially during fire operation and rescue
The results showed that TRPP and TSET of the fabric combination systems are significantly different under different heat radiation intensities
The results indicated that increasing the fabric combination numbers would increase the thickness and weight of the firefighters’ protective clothing which decreased the thermal conductive property
Summary
The thermal protection performance (TPP) of firefighters’ protective clothing against radiation heat is a critical property for multilayer fabric system, especially during fire operation and rescue. Many researchers have extensively investigated the TPP levels of the multilayer fabric combinations by using a radiant protective performance (RPP) tester under different radiation heat exposures. Lawson et al examined the effects of the amount and location of moisture on heat transfer in fabric assemblies systems, which typically belong to wildland firefighters’ protective clothing [4]. They concluded that moisture can have negative or positive affect on the TPP, according to the moisture content of the fabric combination system. The effect of different fabric combinations, air gap, reflective trim, and moisture barrier integrity on the TPP of firefighters’ protective clothing was investigated under low levels of radiant heat exposure. New knowledge gained from this study may provide valuable insight for predicting human skin burns and the TPP of firefighters’ protective clothing against radiant heat exposure
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