2006/01/01 by R. L. Barker, Roger Barker, Cordula Christina Guerth-Schacher +4 · 149 citations
Engineering · Health Professions · Medicine · #Arc flash #Composite material #Environmental science #Fire dynamics and safety research #Heat flux #Heat transfer #Materials science #Mechanics #Meteorology #Moisture #Occupational Health and Performance #Thermal #Thermoregulation and physiological responses #Turnout
paper · doi:10.1177/0040517506053947
published in Textile Research Journal 76(1), 27-31 (SAGE Publishing)
crossref issued 2006/01/01 · crossref published 2006/01/01 · crossref published-online 2006/01/01 · crossref published-print 2006/01/01 · openalex publication_date 2006/01/01 · crossref created 2006/03/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/05/01 · crossref indexed 2026/08/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
This paper describes research on the effects of absorbed moisture on the thermal protective performance of the fire fighter turnout materials exposed to thermal assaults lower than flashover conditions. A thermal testing platform and sensor are used to measure thermal protective performance of turnout systems exposed to a sub flashover heat flux range 6.3 kw/m2 (0.15 cal/ cm2 s). The effects of moisture level on predicted second-degree burn injury for turnout systems having different moisture vapor permeability and total heat loss are discussed. Heat transfer analysis and experimental results show that, for selected test conditions, moisture negatively impacts protective performance most severely when the amount of added moisture is at a comparatively low level (15–20% of turnout system weight).