Abstract:

In order to study heat-moisture comfort of fire-fighter’s protective clothing and investigate whether it meets the requirements of European and  American standards, thermal resistance, evaporative resistance and total heat loss of various fire-fighter’s protective clothing materials were tested and analyzed. Furthermore, the inflrence of air gap on the thermal resistance of multilayer fabrics was also studied. The results were compared with requirements in European and American standards. It is found that when thickness of the fabrics is substantially the same, density affects greatly on thermal resistance and evaporative resistance of outer shell materials. For thermal barrier material, its thermal resistance and evaporative resistance are much higher because of its non-woven structure.Location of air gap has little effect on the thermal resistance of multilayer fabrics. However, the thickness of air gap may have great effect on the thermal resistance of fire-fighters' protective clothing. The evaporative resistance of the multilayer fabrics is lower than 30 Pa • m² /W and the total heat loss thereof is higher than 250W/m², which meets the requirements of European and American standards.

Key words: fire-fighter's peotective clothing material, heat-moisture comfort, thermal resistance, air gap, evaporative resistance, total heat loss