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Bench scale and flame manikin tests are two typical methods to evaluate thermal protective performance (TPP) of fire protective clothing. However, flame manikin test is limited to be widely used for its complication and high cost. The purpose of this paper is to develop a method to evaluate the thermal performance of protective clothing from the bench scale test results and garment parameters, which predicts the body burn injuries without conducting flame manikin tests.

Bench scale and flame manikin tests’ data were collected from the previous research literature and then statistical analysis was performed to quantitatively investigate the correlations between the two test methods. Equations were established to predict the TPP values accounting for the effects of entrapped air gap and thermal shrinkage. Fitting analysis was conducted to analyze the relationship between the predicted TPP values and total burn injury. Finally, a method to predict total burn injury from the TPP values was proposed and validated.

The results showed that when the TPP value was predicted with the effects of air gap and thermal shrinkage considered, there was an approximate linear relationship between the predicted TPP values and total burn injury from the manikin test. Therefore, the prediction model of burn injury was developed based on the correlation analysis and verified with a generally good accuracy.

This paper presented a new prediction method to evaluate the thermal performance of protective clothing, which saved significant time and cost compared to the conventional methods. It can provide useful information for burn injury prediction of protective clothing.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of flash fire exposure on the mechanical properties of single-layer thermal protective clothing.

The full-scale flame manikin tests were performed to simulate flash fire exposure. Two typical fire-resistant fabrics were investigated. The manikin was divided into seven body parts and the specimens meeting the requirements of tensile and tear strength standards were sampled. Fabric thickness, mass per unit area, tensile strength and tear strength were measured and analyzed.

The results revealed the significant influence of heat flux on both of tensile and tear strength. However, the regression analysis indicated the low R² of the liner models. When the tensile and tear strength retention were reorganized based on the body parts, both of the multiple linear regression models for tensile and tear strength showed higher R² than the one-variable linear regressions. Furthermore, the R² of the multiple linear regression model for tear strength retention was remarkably higher than that of the tensile strength.

The findings suggested that greater attention should be paid to the local part of human body and more factors such as the air gap should be considered in the future thermal aging of firefighters’ clothing studies.

The outcomes provided useful information to evaluate the mechanical properties of thermal protective clothing and predict its service life.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of ventilation openings and fire intensity on heat transfer and fluid flow within the microclimate between 3D human body and clothing.

On account of interaction effects of fire and ventilation openings on heat transfer process, a 3D transient computational fluid dynamics model considering the real shape of human body and clothing was developed. The model was validated by comparing heat flux history and distribution with experimental results. Heat transfer modes and fluid flow were investigated under three levels of fire intensity for the microclimate with ventilation openings and closures.

Temperature distribution on skin surface with open microclimate was heavily depended on the heat transfer through ventilation openings. Higher temperature for the clothing with confined microclimate was affected by the position and direction of flames injection. The presence of openings contributed to the greater velocity at forearms, shanks and around neck, which enhanced the convective heat transfer within microclimate. Thermal radiation was the dominant heat transfer mode within the microclimate for garment with closures. On the contrary, convective heat transfer within microclimate for clothing with openings cannot be neglected.

The findings provided fundamental supports for the ease and pattern design of the improved thermal protective systems, so as to realize the optimal thermal insulation of the microclimate on the garment level in the future.

The outcomes broaden the insights of results obtained from the mesoscale models. Different high skin temperature distribution and heat transfer modes caused by thermal environment and clothing structure provide basis for advanced thermal protective clothing design.

The purpose of this paper is to provide the details of developments to research works in the distribution characteristics of the air gaps within firefighters’ clothing and research methods to evaluate the effect of air gaps on the thermal protective performance of firefighters’ clothing.

In this paper, the distribution of air gaps within firefighters’ clothing was first analyzed, and the air gaps characteristics were summarized as thickness, location, heterogeneity, orientation and dynamics. Then, the evaluation of the air gap on the thermal protective performance of fighters’ clothing was reviewed for both experimental and numerical studies.

The air gaps within clothing layers and between clothing and skin play an important role in determining the thermal protective performance of firefighters’ protective clothing. It is obvious that research works on the effects of actual air gaps entrapped in firefighters’ clothing on thermal protection are comparatively few in number, primarily focusing on static and uniform air gaps at the fabric level. Further studies should be conducted to define the characteristic of air gap, deepen the understand of mechanism of heat transfer and numerically simulate the 3D dynamic heat transfer in clothing to improve the evaluation of thermal protective performance provided by the firefighters’ clothing.

Air gaps within thermal protective clothing play a crucial role in the protective performance of clothing and provide an efficient way to provide fire-fighting occupational safety. To accurately characterize the distribution of air gaps in firefighters’ clothing under high heat exposure, the paper will provide guidelines for clothing engineers to design clothing for fighters and optimize the clothing performance.

This paper is offered as a concise reference for researchers’ further research in the area of the effect of air gaps within firefighters’ clothing under thermal exposure.

The purpose of this paper is to study the heat transfer effect of copper sensor and skin simulant on skin.

For the sensor, the physical and mathematical models of the thermal sensors were used to obtain the definite conditions in the heat transfer process of the sensor, and the heat transfer models of the two sensors were developed and solved respectively by using ANSYS WORKBENCH 19.0 software. The simulation results were compared with the experimental test results. For the skin, the numerical model of the skin model was developed and calculated. Finally, the heat transfer simulation performance of the two sensors was analyzed.

It is concluded that the copper sensor is more stable than the skin simulant, but the material and structure of the skin simulant is more suitable for skin simulation. The skin simulant better simulates the skin heat transfer. For all the factors in the model, the thermal properties of the material and the heat flux level are the key factors. The convective heat transfer coefficient, radiation heat transfer rate and the initial temperature have little influence on the results, which can be ignored.

The results show that there are still some differences between the experimental and numerical simulation values of the skin simulant. In the future, the thermal parameters of skin simulant and the influence of the thermocouple adhesion should be further examined during the calibration process.

The results suggest that the skin simulant needs to be further calibrated, especially for the thermal properties. The copper sensor on the flame manikin can be replaced by the skin simulant with higher accuracy, which will be helpful to improve the accuracy of performance evaluation of thermal protective clothing.

The application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology can help to analyze the heat transfer simulation mechanism of thermal sensor, explore the influence of thermal performance of thermal sensor on skin simulation, provide basis for the development of thermal sensor and improve the application system of thermal sensor. Based on the current research status, this paper studies the internal heat transfer of the sensor through the numerical modeling of the copper sensor and skin simulant, so as to analyze the effect of the sensor simulating skin and the reasons for the difference.

In this paper, the sensor itself is numerically modeled and the heat transfer inside the sensor is studied.

During conflict, Royal Navy personnel wear a two‐ply flame‐retardant (FR) “action coverall” (AC) and “anti‐flash” (AF) hood and gloves, made from Proban (Albright & Wilson's registered trademark) treated cotton. It is a widely held belief that extended wear, and repeated washing damages the Proban^® FR finish making the garments more susceptible to ignition if exposed to flame. To examine this, new and used AC and AF were exposed up to 10 s on a flame manikin. The examples of used AC and AF had been worn for approximately 56 days and washed 20 times over a 12 week period at sea. For flame challenges up to 10 s, much greater than expected in a fuel explosion, the protection afforded by the used clothing was as good as for the new clothing, with some evidence that protection had improved. It is concluded that the Proban^® FR treatment was not damaged by wear or washing.

Royal Navy (RN) fire fighters have recently been provided with a new two‐ply hood made from 20 per cent polybenzimidizole/80 per cent permanent flame retardant Rayon (fibre made from regenerated cellulose). After 15‐20 days of use during live‐fire training (and regular washing) the new type hood appeared to be suffering from excessive wear and there was concern that the level of protection might have decreased. To examine this, 25 new and 25 used hoods (worn and washed approximately 15‐20 times) were exposed to flame, five each at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 s using a flame manikin head to ascertain the predicted burn injuries. The new hood was shown to provide excellent protection against the most severe flame engulfment to which RN personnel might accidentally be exposed. There was no evidence that the protection afforded by the hoods was reduced by prolonged use and washing and therefore it was safe for the “new‐type” hood to remain in‐service.

Examines the fourteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

Examines the fifthteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

To optimise protection from fire afforded to the head, an investigation into layering of firefighters' hoods was undertaken. Hoods made from 1 to 4 layers of Kermel/FR Viscose (50 per cent blend) were flame challenged for up to 10 seconds (53 kW m⁻² to 85 kW m⁻²) on a manikin head. Protection was increased with more layers. After four seconds of flame it was predicted that 74 per cent of the head suffered 2° or 3° burns with a 1‐ply hood. This fell to 59 per cent and 45 per cent respectively, when a breathing apparatus mask and helmet were also worn. For a 4‐ply hood corresponding predicted burns fell to 13 per cent, 8 per cent and & 8 per cent. Between 50 per cent to 67 per cent of these reductions occurred using a 2‐ply hood, and 80 per cent with 3‐ply. In conclusion, the most appropriate benefit was gained by adopting a 2‐ply hood. Three or more layers interfered with helmet fitting and communications, and offered little increased benefit.