Estimates of thermal properties for fire fighters' protective clothing materials

Abstract

A series of measurements has been carried out to quantify the thermal properties of materials used to fabricate fire fighters' thermal protective clothing. The thermal property measurements chosen have direct application for use in heat transfer model computations that may be used to predict the thermal performance of fire fighters' protective clothing. The thermal properties are: thermal conductivity, specific heat, and the thermo-optical properties of absorptivity, reflectivity, and transmissivity. In addition, the physical property of density was also measured. Since thermal properties vary with ambient temperature conditions, thermal conductivity measurements were made over a range of temperatures, 20°C to 100°C. Specific heat was measured over a range of 0°C to 100°C. The maximum temperature of 100°C was selected because it is below the temperature wherematerial's thermal degradation occurs, and the temperature range used covers the temperatures where burn injuries occur in human skin. The thermo-optical properties data were generated only at room temperature, approximately 23°C, since the test apparatus was not designed to operate at higher temperatures.

Thermal performance for fire-fighters' protective clothing. 3. simulating a TPP test for single-layered fabrics

“…The model also allows adsorption and desorption of moisture within the pore spaces. Material properties for the individual fabrics are drawn from a database coded into the software with values taken from the measurements of Lawson and Walton [9]. As the material properties were only measured over finite temperature ranges up to 100 • C, they are taken to be constant above this limit.…”

Full ensemble and bench scale testing of fire fighter protective clothing

“…This test specimen consisted of a three layer mock-up of a fire fighter clothing ensemble ( Figure 8 . The thermal and optical properties of similar materials used in fire fighter turnout ensembles have been measured [9]. The properties of the materials used in the mock-up samples are summarized in Table 1.…”

“…The thermal and optical properties [9] of the turnout coat materials are summarized in Table 2. The material used as the thermal liner in the fire fighter turnout coat was not tested.…”

“…The density of the thermal liner in the fire fighter coat was estimated based on the heavier material and shown in Table 2. * -material not tested [9] A short sleeve workstation uniform shirt was placed on the mannequin underneath the firefighter coat. This workstation shirt was instrumented with thermocouples on the outside which approximately matched the locations of those thermocouples on the firefighter coat.…”

A Heat Transfer Model for Firefighters’ Protective Clothing, Continued Developments in Protective Clothing Modeling

“…Therefore, an effort was carried out to develop a basic set of the necessary data for the fabrics considered. Results from this work were reported in 2005 by NIST, in NISTIR 7282, which is entitled, ''Estimates of Thermal Properties for Fire Fighters' Protective Clothing Materials'' [6]. In this work, nine materials typically used in the fabrication of fire fighters' protective clothing and one cotton fabric were tested to develop estimates of thermal conductivity, specific heat, and the thermo-optical properties of transmittance, reflectance, and absorptance.…”