TY - JOUR
T1 - Influence of Wet Cooling Vest on Firefihters' Protective Clothing
AU - Shadi Houshyar,  Daniela Zavec Pavlinic, Rajiv Padhye & Rajkishore Nayak
JO - Journal of Fiber Bioengineering and Informatics
VL - 1
SP - 41
EP - 49
PY - 2017
DA - 2017/02
SN - 10
DO - http://doi.org/10.3993/jfbim00257
UR - https://global-sci.org/intro/article_detail/jfbi/10610.html
KW - Cooling Vest
KW - Firefighters' Protective Clothing
KW - Thermal Manikin
KW - Hydro-crystals
AB - Firefighters' Protective Clothing (FPC) is essential for protection against thermal and physical threats.
FPC must be comfortable, enable heat transfer from the wearer to the environment and should not
restrict motion of body parts. The application of a cooling vest under protective clothing may prevent
overheating by cooling at the microenvironment level while working in a hot environment during
firefighting. In this study, the effect of using a passive system, in the form of a nonwoven fleece material,
was investigated. This system was distributed across the surface of a vest on the upper front chest and
back. In this passive system, hydro-crystals swell on contact with cold water, lowering body temperature
or holding the body temperature at a normal level. The thermal insulation of the wet and dry cooling
vest was tested using a thermal manikin. Results showed that the thermal resistance of the system
dropped significantly due to replacement of dry air with moist air with higher thermal conductivity.
This reduction was proportional to the amount of moisture present within the system.