Characterizing and Improving Thermal Protective Performance of Multilayered Garment in Critical Condition

摘要

Firefighter's outer garment, multilayered, consists of outer shell, moisture barrier and thermal liner. Together they are designed to protect firefighter in the different fire environment, categorized as routine, hazardous and emergency [1], [2]. Various assessments on this garment have been conducted using a bench scale apparatus in a horizontal orientation and at the maximum incident flux of 84 kW/m2 [3]-[7], a flashover fire condition in compartment. However, modern furnishing in buildings and the new trend of high-story housing have recently demonstrated an increase in fire load [8]. Subsequently, increasing the average thermal load in buildings, of magnitude greater than 84 kW/m2. As thermal protection capability provided by the garment needs to be stipulated under this new severer condition, a calibration method was proposed in a vertical orientation with a thermal load of 126 kW/m2. This study addresses the performance level and presents time-temperature data on thermal protection provided to firefighter in such critical conditions. In addition, the reduction in skin temperature has been investigated by the use of auxiliary protection in terms of additional layers. Three different sets of multilayered garment system were prepared as; (A) conventional (B) conventional with the addition of underwear layer; and (C) conventional with the addition of Nomex~R Honeycomb structure layer. The configuration of each layers is presented in fig. 1. Type A, B and C were exposed to an incident radiant flux of 84 and 126 kW/m2 using a vertical bench scale test for three different exposure times. Irradiance at skin level was measured using a heat flux gauge and was used to estimate the temperature of the skin surface.