Characterizing and Improving Thermal Protective Performance of Multilayered Garment in Critical Condition

A system of multilayered fabrics consisting of the outer shell, moisture barrier and the thermal liner is employed together for use by firefighters exposed to extreme conditions. Assessment of multilayered garment is done using a bench scale in a horizontal orientation and at the incident flux of 84 kW⁄m^2 (2 cal⁄(cm^2 s)). A depiction of extreme condition. Recently, modern furnishing in buildings and the new trend of double story housing have shown an increase in fire load. Thus, increasing the average thermal load ≫ 84 kW⁄m^2 . A new thermal load of 126 kW⁄m^2 (3 cal⁄(cm^2 s)) is proposed. There exists a knowledge gap on the performance of thermal protective garment at this new critical condition in a vertical orientation, the depiction of a firefighter in active situations. This study aims to address this gap and provides information on protective level provided to firefighter. In addition, improvement in performance has been shown under this study by the use of auxiliary protection in terms of additional layers.