Abstract
Fire protective garments are essential for a broad range of professionals, such as fire fighters, soldiers, and workers in process industries. An important step prior to the utilisation of a new garment is to assess its thermal protective characteristics by exposing it to real fire conditions. In this chapter we describe a professional system built around a mannequin equipped with a distributed array of thermocouples. After dressing the mannequin and exposing it to a flash fire the distribution of temperatures on the mannequin surface is recorded. From the temperature recording the heat flux that envelopes the mannequin surface is reconstructed first. To evaluate the possible reaction of skin subjected to the same flux, the skin heat transfer equation has to be solved next. The result of the experiment is a time distribution of injuries across the mannequin. In this chapter we extend the classic assessment procedure by questioning what the distribution of injuries would be if a broad range of individuals with different skin properties were subjected to the same flame conditions. A numerically efficient Monte Carlo simulation procedure which splits the overall computational load into off-line and on-line parts is proposed. The feasibility of the concept is demonstrated on an experimental run.
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The support of the Slovenian Research Agency through Programme P2-0001 is gratefully acknowledged.
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Juričić, Ð., Gašperin, M., Musizza, B., Dolanc, G., Mekjavić, I. (2013). A System for Model-Based Quality Assessment of Burn-Protective Garments. In: Strmčnik, S., Juričić, Đ. (eds) Case Studies in Control. Advances in Industrial Control. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5176-0_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5176-0_9
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