Estimating of Thermal Protective Performance of Heat Resistant Fabrics Used for Fire Safety Clothing

Fire safety clothing or fabrics against thermal exposure are a crucial requirement in order to ensure people survivability and to protect structure. A model-based method was developed to evaluate thermal performance of flame resistant fabrics used in fire safety clothing. The skin simulant sensor was used to determine the heat flux at the skin simulant surface from the elevation of temperature of skin simulant surface. The heat flux was then applied to skin thermal wave model (STWM) incorporating Henriques" burn integral to predict the level of skin injury. Results of tolerance time from Stoll criterion method are also compared with those from Henriques" method with two skin models (Pennes' and STWM model) in Thermal Protective Performance calorimeter. The comparison measurements show that the test results correlated well with those obtained from Henriques' method with Pennes' model. It is concluded that the thermal properties of heat-resistant fabric can be more precisely evaluated by STWM, which provides theoretical basis for the design of fire safety clothing used in emergency rescue.