THERMAL PROTECTIVE PERFORMANCE OF FIREFIGHTERS CLOTHING

Daniel Onuț BADEA, Alina TRIFU, Roxana Oana CHIVU

Abstract


: Personal protective equipment (PPE) is essential for firefighters to ensure their safety and health because they encounter complex conditions while performing their duties. The most serious of these conditions is thermal exposure, which may result from radiation, convection, hot liquid, steam. Inefficient protection in a fire scenario can cause injury and fatality. The best approach for firefighters to mitigate burn injuries and reduce the risk of death, is to apply high-performance PPE. This paper presents the results of a laboratory simulation performed to study the thermal responses of firefighter’s clothing. There are three types of heat transfer: conductive heat, convected heat and radiation heat. The study was conducted using various combinations of essential requirements (flame propagation, convective heat transfer index, radiation heat transfer index, resistance to residual tensile material exposed to radiant heat, tensile strength, tear resistance) and is a review of the influence of various factors on the performance of thermal protective clothing, to predict the thermal protective performance of 3 pieces of firefighter’s clothing. By employing these key essential requirements against thermal resistance, the multiple linear regression model was developed for predicting the thermal protective performance of those pieces of firefighters clothing.


Full Text:

PDF

References


Li, Y., Wong, A.S.W. 2006, Physiology of Thermal Comfort. Cambridge: The Textile Institute, CRC Press, Woodhead Publishing Limited, 2006.

Slater, K., Textile Progress – Comfort Properties of Textiles vol. 9; Ukponmwan, J.O. 1993, The Thermal Insulation Properties of Fabrics vol. 24, 1977.

Rossi, R.M., Fire Fighting and Its Influence on the Body, Ergonomics, 46(10), 1017-1033), 2003.

Stoll, A.M., Greene, L.C., Relationship between pain and Tissue Damage Due to Thermal Radiation, Journal of Applied Physiology, 14(3), 373-382, 1959.

Stoll, A.M., Chianta, M.A., A Method and Rating System for Evaluation of Thermal Protection: DTIC Document, 1968.

Mandal, S.; Song, G., An empirical analysis of thermal protective performance of fabrics used in protective clothing, The Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 58(8), 1065-1077, 2014.

Gajšek, B., Draghici, A., Boatca, M. E., Gaureanu, A., Robescu, D., Linking the Use of Ergonomics Methods to Workplace Social Sustainability: The Ovako Working Posture Assessment System and Rapid Entire Body Assessment Method, Sustainability,1 4(7), 4301, 2022.

Choong, S. W. J., Ng, P. K., Yeo, B. C., Draghici, A., Gaureanu, A., Ng, Y. J., ..., Selvan, H. K. T., A Preliminary Study on Ergonomic Contribution to the Engineering Design Approach of a Wheel Loader Control Lever System, Sustainability, 14(1), 122, 2021.

Dufour, C., Draghci, A., Ivascu, L., Sarfraz, M., Occupational health and safety division of responsibility: A conceptual model for the implementation of the OHSAS 18001: 2007 standard, Human Systems Management, 39(4), 549-563, 2020.

Szabó, G., Balogh, Z., Dovramadjiev, T., Draghici, A., Gajšek, B., Lulić, T. J., ..., Zunjic, A., Introducing the ergonomics and human factors regional educational CEEPUS Network, Acta Technica Napocensis-Series: Applied Mathematics, Mechanics, and Engineering, 64(1-S1), 2021.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


JOURNAL INDEXED IN :