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On the Performance of Firefighting Suits Under Different Patterns of Firefighter’s Movement: Radiation Heat Transfer Between Layers of the Suit

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Abstract

The pattern of the firefighter’s movement during fire exposure remarkably affects the protective performance of the firefighting suit. In addition, thermal energy transfer through the suit to the body, which determines the protective performance of the suit, takes place primarily by radiation heat transfer. Therefore, this study numerically investigates the influence of reducing the radiation heat transfer between the layers of the firefighting suit and from the suit to the body on the protective performance of the suit for different patterns of the firefighter’s movement. Specifically, the influence of reducing the emissivity (from 0.9 to 0.1) of the backside surface of each layer of the suit on the protective performance of the suit was explored for a variation in the frequency (from 0 rps to 4 rps) and amplitude (from 0.5 mm to 3 mm) of the periodic motion of the suit relative to the body. The results showed that reducing the emissivity of the backside surface of any of the layers of the suit improves the protective performance of the suit for high frequencies and low amplitudes of the motion. Moreover, reducing the emissivity of the backside surface of the thermal liner layer has the highest effect among the layers of the suit on the protective performance of the suit.

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Abbreviations

c P :

Specific heat at constant pressure [J/kg K]

c v :

Specific heat at constant volume [J/kg K]

\(\hat e\) :

Unit vector in coordinate direction

f :

Frequency [1/s]

G :

Incident irradiation [W/m2]

h :

Convection heat transfer coefficient [W/m2 K]

I :

Irradiation intensity [W/m2]

k :

Thermal conductivity [W/m K]

P :

Pre-exponential factor [1/s]

\(q^{\prime\prime}\) :

Heat flux [W/m2]

\(\mathop{r}\limits^{\rightharpoonup}\) :

Position vector [m]

R :

Universal gas constant [J/mol K]

rps :

Revolutions per second

s :

Geometric distance [m]

\(\hat s\) :

Spatial unit vector

T :

Temperature [K]

t :

Time [s]

y :

Vertical coordinate [m]

\(\Omega\) :

Solid angle [sr]

\(\varphi\) :

Skin damage quantitative coefficient

\(\Delta E\) :

Skin activation energy [J/kmol]

Δy :

Variation in the gap width [m]

\(\varepsilon\) :

Emissivity

\(\gamma\) :

Extinction coefficient [1/m]

\(\kappa\) :

Absorption coefficient [1/m]

\(\rho\) :

Density [kg/m3]

\(\sigma\) :

Stefan–Boltzmann constant [5.67 × 10–8 W/m2 K4]

\(\omega\) :

Blood perfusion rate [m3/s]

air :

Air

amb :

Ambient surroundings

b :

Black body

bl :

Human blood

cr :

Body core

ep :

Epidermis skin layer

ds :

Dermis skin layers

sc :

Subcutaneous skin layers

exp :

Exposure

fab :

Fabric

g :

Hot gases

hot :

Hot air

R :

Radiation heat transfer

shl :

Outer shell

fl :

Flame

o :

Initial

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Jouf University, P.O. Box 2014, Sakaka, Aljouf, Saudi Arabia

    Ahmed Ghazy

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  1. Ahmed Ghazy
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Correspondence to Ahmed Ghazy.

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Ghazy, A. On the Performance of Firefighting Suits Under Different Patterns of Firefighter’s Movement: Radiation Heat Transfer Between Layers of the Suit. Fire Technol 58, 2055–2076 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-022-01239-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-022-01239-w

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