Apparatus and Method to measure thermal insulation factors for use with BURNSIM

The characterization and measurement of heat transfer through personal protective equipment is important for mitigating the risk to fire fighters, air crew support teams and other personnel working in close proximity to jet exhausts or post crash fires. The main objective of this proposal is to develop a test apparatus capable of measuring thermal insulation values for and heat fluxes through this type of (multi-layer) clothing. The thermal and flow regimes of interest are typified by gas streams with velocities ranging from near zero to 32 meter/s and temperatures up to 100 C. The test scenario envisioned is a hot jet impinging upon a clothing test sample in the direction normal to the sample surface. The primary application of the apparatus and test methodology would be to provide inputs to the BURNSIM computer code. This code, originally developed at the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory (USAARL), is capable of predicting both the time to pain and burn depth expected when either bare or clothed skin is subjected to a time varying heat flux. A second objective of the proposed research is to build upon and extend the existing clothing model in BURNSIM to be applicable to (highly) transient thermal environments.