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http://trj.sagepub.com Evaluating the Effects of Material Component and Design Feature on Heat Transfer in Firefighter Turnout Clothing by a Sweating Manikin
Jun Li, Roger L. Barker and A. Shawn Deaton Textile Research Journal 2007; 77; 59 DOI: 10.1177/0040517507078029 The online version of this article can be found at: http://trj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/77/2/59
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Article
Evaluating the Effects of Material Component and Design Feature on Heat Transfer in Firefighter Turnout Clothing by a Sweating Manikin
With a sweating manikin, the heat exchange efficiency through firefighter turnout clothing system from the wearer to the environment and the effects of material component and design feature on heat transfer were evaluated in a climatic chamber. Material component and design feature were varied to measure thermal insulation (It in clo units) and moisture permeability index (im dimensionless) of firefighter turnout clothing under two circumstances, with openings at the neck, wrists, waist and ankles sealed or not. Two new indices CIt and Cim were proposed to evaluate heat and moisture transfer capabilities of firefighter turnout clothing, which were defined as the changing rates of It and im from conditions of the clothing dressed in a regular way with openings unsealed to the openings sealed. The results showed that CIt indicated the effects of clothing design differences on heat transfer through firefighter turnout clothing, while Cim was dependent greatly on material properties (moisture permeability).
Abstract
Jun Li1
Fashion Design and Engineering Department, Fashion Institute, Donghua University, 1882 Yan-An Road West, Shanghai 200051, Peoples Republic of China Center for Research on Textile Protection and Comfort, College of Textiles, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Key words firefighter turnout clothing, thermal insulation, moisture permeability index, sweating manikin
Firefighters must wear heavy protective clothing ensembles to protect them from fire. They cannot function satisfactorily if they feel uncomfortable, or even worse, become incapacitated due to excessive heat stress [1, 2]. For firefighter protective clothing, the thermal protective performance is of primary importance; its contribution to comfort and heat stress of the firefighter should be a consideration. Therefore, the design of firefighter clothing is a compromise between protection and comfort. The extent to which the clothing affects the heat exchange between the fire fighter and the environment is a crucial parameter that should be considered when evaluating the effectiveness of fire protective clothing [3].1
Despite improvements in the protection of firefighters afforded by new technology, there are still some areas of firefighter protective clothing performance which are not well understood [4]. One of the most difficult areas that receives continuous attention is heat and moisture transport in firefighter turnout clothing [5]. Clothings heat and moisture transfer performance is affected not only by material properties, such as fabric thick-
Corresponding author: Fashion Institute, Donghua University, Shanghai 200051, Peoples Republic of China. Tel.: 8621 2833 8655; fax: 8621 6237 9188; e-mail: lijun@dhu.edu.cn
Textile Research Journal Vol 77(2): 5966 DOI: 10.1177/0040517507078029 Figures 1, 4, 5 appear in color online: http://trj.sagepub.com
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Figure 1 Test garments on the sweating manikin. ness, weight and air permeability, but also by design (style), size (fitness) and accessory (design detail in clothing) and how a garment is worn [6]. The nature and thickness of the materials reduce the permeability of clothing and, consequently, inhibit the evaporation of moisture from the body. The clothing weight, as well as its stiffness, thickness and bulkiness, can increase the wearers metabolic heat production during activity, as well as restrict heat exchange between the body and the environment. The air gap between the skin and the material and the garment design, open or closed, are also important factors. The effects of the clothing design features, therefore, need to be understood [7]. Various approaches have been used to evaluate heat exchange efficiency in researches conducted in the comfort area of firefighter protective clothing. At present, the testing and evaluation of firefighting clothing have mainly dealt with the properties of the materials used. Most tests typically refer to material heat and vapor resistance, flammability, etc [8]. Experiments like sweating guarded hot plate test procedures have been done to analyze the comfort properties of fabrics. These material tests can help evaluate heat and moisture transfer property in textiles, but it is hard to relate them to the comfort performance of clothing, which is also affected by design features. These tests often neglect the effect the garment manufacturing process has brought on the material properties (stitching, seams, treatments), the effects of clothing design, sizing and fit, as well as the effect of the interaction of the clothing with other components of the standard gear for the profession (helmet, gloves) and how the clothing performs in actual use. Such effects can only be tested by looking at the protective clothing ensemble as a whole [9]. In principle, ready-made garments should be tested in conditions similar to actual use, so tests that take into account real wearing situations are necessary [10]. Wear trials are desirable for this purpose; however, they have poor reproducibility. Evaluating the clothing with a full-scale instrumented manikin in a climatic chamber is the best alternative [11]. Therefore, the purpose of this laboratory study was to develop a methodology to assess quantitatively the effects of clothing factors on heat and moisture transfer performance of firefighter turnout clothing. Two novel indices were defined to evaluate the heat exchange efficiency through firefighter turnout clothing system between the wearer and the environment and the effects of material component and design feature on heat transfer. To demonstrate these new indices, the following example of testing fire-fighting protective clothing was followed. A sweating manikin [12] was used to measure thermal insulation It and moisture permeability index im of firefighter turnout clothing with different material combination and design feature. The data presented are meant as illustrations of the tests and will provide useful information to develop more protective, less heat stressful firefighter protective clothing system.
Experimental
Test Garments
In order to assess how the firefighter turnout clothing system affected total heat exchange between the firefighter and the environment through turnout clothing system, it was essential to differentiate the effects of clothing factors on heat and moisture transfer in firefighter turnout clothing. The clothing factors exist in two aspects, material combination and design feature. The standard firefighter turnout clothing is a three-layer construction consisting of an outer heat resistant shell, inner water resistant moisture barrier and thermal liner. Consequently outer shell, moisture barrier and thermal liner become the three variables to define material system. As far as design aspect is concerned, clothing design (style), size (fitness) and accessory (design detail in clothing) are summarized as the other three factors. Design/style includes openings, closure, etc. Size/fit refers to girth, length and other dimension features. Accessory involves trim, pockets, reinforced/enhanced sections, etc. Combining nine types of material systems (Table 1) and different clothing design features (Table 2), 11 different firefight turnout clothing (Figure 1) were designed as test garments.
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Moisture barrier
Thermal liner
Liner 1 Barrier 1 255 g/m ripstop weave, 60 % Kevlar/40 PTFE laminated on aramid/para- 238 g/m2 aramid/para-aramid aramid spunlace % PBI blend spunlace quilted to aramid facecloth Same as B1 Barrier 1 Liner 2 238 g/m2 para-aramid batt quilted to aramid facecloth Liner 2 Liner 2 Liner 3 Nomex-para-aramid batt laminated to Nomex multifilament Liner 1 Liner 4 241.4 g/m2 layer aramid/paraaramid spunlace quilted to aramid facecloth Liner 5 267 g/m2 para-aramid batt quilted to aramid facecloth Liner 6 316 g/m2 aramid batt quilted to aramid face cloth
B2
664.2
5.28
B3 B4 B5
B6 G1~ G2
Same as B1 Same as B1
684.6 664.6
4.88 2.70
G3 ~ G4
Same as B1
690.0
4.01
G5
Same as B1
715.4
5.39
Test Procedure
The testing environment was set as T = 25 C, RH = 65% and wind velocity = 1.0 m/s to simulate firefighters mild working conditions. The air was steady flowing from the chamber roof. The whole manikin body was heated to keep 35 C mean skin temperature. The sweating rate was set at 200 g/m2 to keep the manikin surface moist, with the exception of head, hands and feet. For some test garments with poor moisture permeability, the surplus sweat condensed and dropped into the sink under the manikin. Firefighter turnout clothing is typically worn together with boots, helmet, gloves and a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA); little air ventilation occurs at the neck, waist (sealed by the harness), wrists and ankles. In order to evaluate heat and moisture transfer capability of firefighter turnout clothing worn in a real fire fighting situation, test garments were dressed in the manikin by
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B1 ~ 6 pants Traditional NFPA basic Inside hook & pile; (waist-length) 7.6 cm trim take up straps G1 coat Traditional 7.6 cm trim Inside hook & dee rings; velcro closure on storm flap Inside snap fasteners and leather take-up strap on right side
2 expansion pockets; Shoulders/upper back Letter patch 1 liner pocket; 2 radio and elbows padded; on back elbows reinforced pockets; 1 mask pocket 2 expansion pockets; 2 front rear pockets Thermal seat/knees padded with extra layer in liner; seat reinforced No Flashlight loop
G1 pants
36/71
G2 coat
Same as G1
No
Inside snap fasteners; 1 liner pocket hook & dee rings on storm flap Same as G1 No
42/89
G2 pants G3 coat
Same as G1 Jacket
No Shoulders/upper back Universal clip; Nomex padded with extra hand guard layer in liner Back bib padding for SCBA; knees padded and reinforced
36/71 42/81
Zipper on inside; hook 2 expansion pockets; & pile on wide storm 1 radio pocket flap 2 expansion pockets; Inside hook & pile; take-up strap on right 2 rear pockets side and waist sides Inside zipper; hook & pile on storm flap Same as G3
G3 pants
Bibbed pants
36/71
G4 ~ 5 coat
Same as G3
2 hand warmer dual- Shoulders/upper back action pockets; 1 liner padded with extra layer in liner pocket 2 expansion pockets Back bib padding for SCBA; knees padded
42/89
G4 ~ 5 pants Same as G3
36/71
tightening the wrists, ankles, neck and waist with impermeable tapes to inhibit chimney effects. On the contrary, all the garments were tested in a regular way with openings unsealed.
The total thermal insulation expressed in clo units (It) was calculated as It = 6.45Rt. (2)
When the manikin was sweating, the total evaporative resistance was calculated as Ret = (Ps Pa) As/[Hw (Ts Ta) As/Rt] (3)
where Rt is total thermal insulation of the clothing plus the air layer (m2C/W), Ts is area-weighted mean skin temperature (C), Ta is ambient air temperature (C), As is total surface area of the manikin sections heated (m2) and Hd is power input with manikin not sweating (W).
where Ret is total moisture evaporative resistance of the clothing plus the air layer (m2kPa/W), Ps is water vapor pressure at the skin temperature (kPa), Pa is water vapor pressure in the ambient air (kPa) and Hw is power input with manikin sweating (W). The difference of Rt when the manikin was dry and sweating [13] was neglected [14] in this study. The moisture permeability index im for a clothing system plus the air layer was calculated by the relationship
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imu
Its (clo)
ims
im = 0.0094ItHe/(Ps RHaPa)
(4)
where im is the permeability index for a clothing system including the surface air layer, Ps is the saturated water vapor pressure at the skin temperature (kPa), RHa is the relative humidity of the surrounding environment, Pa is the saturated water vapor pressure of the surrounding environment (kPa) and He is the evaporative heat loss (W/m2).
insulation (It) increased significantly (confidence level a = 0.05), while im decreased significantly (a = 0.05), than with openings unsealed. Since the test garment did not fit the manikin tightly, the air trapped in the enclosure between the skin surface and the inner thermal liner was not completely still, convection existed in the air gaps. As the main effect, sealing the openings made heat loss more difficult from thick and heavy firefighter turnout clothing. In Figure 2, the test garments whose sample IDs (listed in a decreasing order by their It or im means) share the same underline had no significant difference in It or im (a = 0.05).
where lowercase u stands for openings unsealed and lowercase s stands for openings sealed.
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it had the lowest im (B4 < B3 < B2, confidence level a = 0.05). Both B2 and B3 had much higher im/It values (B2 > B3 > B4), as shown in Figure 3. The air/moisture impermeable moisture barrier (Barrier 3) incorporated in B4 was inferior to the moisture permeable barrier (Barrier 1) in B2 and Barrier 2 in B3 considering latent heat transmission. Air/moisture impermeable moisture barriers in protective clothing resisted evaporative heat loss from the wearer. B1 and B6 were identical except for their moisture barriers (Table 1). B6 had a significantly higher It and lower im value (a = 0.05). Consequently, Barrier 1 in B1 was better than Barrier 3 in B6, based on the fact that B1 had a higher im/It value (Figure 3). Incorporated in clothing, different types of moisture barriers had different im values. It was concluded that the moisture barrier strongly affected the moisture permeability of firefighter turnout clothing.
in B3 in the same condition. Thermal liner affected heat and moisture transmission through firefighter turnout clothing.
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Evaluating the Effects of Material Component and Design Feature on Heat Transfer J. Li et al. the same design features, different material combinations made big differences on Cim values due to their different moisture permeability. The garment with better moisture permeability (higher im) certainly had a lower Cim. As seen in Figure 5, B1 ~ 6 had obviously different Cim individually, as did G4 and G5. Although having exactly the same design features, different material combinations made big differences on Cim values due to their different moisture permeability. The garment with better moisture permeability (higher im) certainly had a lower Cim. Traditional style test garments (except B4 with an impermeable moisture barrier) in general had lower It and higher CIt than G3, G4 and G5. This suggested traditional style had a comparative advantage over the style with bibbed pants on heat loss by ventilation from the openings.
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(b) Accessory
G1 and G2 only differed in accessory (Table 2). G1 had as many accessories as traditional firefighter turnout clothing could have, while there was no accessory in G2. From Table 3 and Figure 4, G2s CIt was higher than G1s. G1 had a significantly higher It and lower im. Apparently, G1 had a more efficient heat loss than G2. Table 2 shows that with the same material combination, G3 and G4 were different in accessory, but identical at other features (G3s jacket was a little shorter than G4). Their im values had no significant difference; while with more accessories G3 had significantly higher It. G3s lower CIt was related to the thinner air gap under clothing caused by heavy accessories. In general, accessory was not helpful to heat transfer, especially when moisture existed. By changing the garments thickness and surface area and restricting moisture evaporation, accessory reduced the heat loss from the wearer.
(c) Size/Fit
Size was undoubtedly a crucial factor to determine the thickness of air gap under clothing. B1 ~ 6 and G1 - G2 were all traditional firefighter turnout clothing (Table 2) with similar style. As shown in Figure 4, B1 ~ 6s CIt values (about 20 ~ 21 %) were higher than that of G1 (11.66 %) and G2 (18.46 %), mainly because B1 ~ 6 were larger than G1 and G2. From a broader view, in this study all B1 ~ 6 test garments with large size universally had higher CIt than G1 G2 test garments with small size. Large size resulted in thick air gaps under clothing, which contributed to ventilation through openings.
ings such as neck and diffusion through fabrics were two ways for the air trapped between fabric layers to escape. Under non-sweating conditions, dry heat loss by the air diffused through the thick three-layer material system with a moisture barrier was very small. Comparing testing garments with openings sealed or not sealed, CIt indicated the effects of size or style on heat loss by ventilation from the openings of test garments and the contribution of the forced ventilation to the heat exchange of clothing in dry state. Under sweating conditions, evaporation became increasingly important to eliminate the heat. Even with openings sealed, the moisture diffused through material system made a big difference on evaporative heat loss of different firefighter turnout clothing. Consequently, Cim closely related to material properties, but was also affected by clothing design features. The amount of garment ventilation depended on the design features. Different style, size, accessory and other clothing design features changed ventilation differently. Consequently, by evaluating the efficiency of ventilation through openings, CIt successfully quantified the effects of clothing design features on heat transfer through firefighter turnout clothing. Cim was dependent greatly on im, which was used as an index to evaluate the moisture permeability of firefighter turnout clothing system, especially on the condition of same design.
Conclusions
With a sweating manikin, this research evaluated heat and moisture transfer performance of firefighter turnout clothing. Outer shell, moisture barrier and thermal liner in the aspect of clothing material, design (style), size (fitness) and accessory (design detail in clothing) in the aspect of clothing design were concluded as six explainable factors. Their effects on heat loss of firefighter protective clothing were differentiated by the indices It, im, CIt and Cim.
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CIt and Cim, the changing rates of It and im, respectively, under two different dressing ways, with openings sealed or not, were proposed as new indices in the study. CIt quantified the effects of clothing design features (design, size, accessory) on heat transfer through firefighter turnout clothing, while Cim was dependent greatly on the material moisture permeability.
6.
Acknowledgement
This research was conducted at the Center for Research on Protection and Comfort (TPACC) at North Carolina State University, USA.
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Literature Cited
1. Huck, J., and McCullough, A. E., Fire Fighter Turnout Clothing: Physiological and Subjective Evaluation, Performance of Protective Clothing, American Society for Testing and Materials, West Conshohocken, PA, pp. 439442 (1988). Heus, R., and Heukelom, J., Fire Fighting and Human Factors; What Does EN469 Mean for Fire Fighters, In Proceedings of the International Conference on Thermal Protection of Man under Hot and Hazardous Conditions, Paris, France, pp. 5158 (1999). Slater, K., Comfort or Protection: The Clothing Dilemma, Performance of Protective Clothing, American Society for Testing and Materials, West Conshohocken, PA, pp. 486490 (1996). Stull, O. J., The Effects of Moisture on Firefighter Protective Clothing Thermal Insulation: A Review of Industry Research, Performance of Protective Clothing, American Society for Testing and Materials, West Conshohocken, PA, pp. 557576 (2000).
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