Thermal protective performance evaluation of fire proof garment eliminating air gaps effect based on computational fluid dynamics simulation

Abstract

To evaluate thermal protective performance of fire proof garment under flash fire exposures, it is important to discuss garment heat transfer characteristics eliminating the effect of air gaps between garment and body. In this study, a test of flame manikin clothed with close-fitting garment was designed. And a three-dimensional transient heat transfer computational fluid dynamics simulation of the test was achieved to gain the garment surface temperature. By means of three-dimensional body scanner, Geomagic and Gambit software, we developed a method of three-dimensional geometrical modeling of the full-scale close-fitting clothed manikin. The accuracy of the computational fluid dynamics simulation was validated by actual experiments. It was found that the average incident heat flux to the exterior of the Nomex® IIIA garment is not 84 kW/m2, the value measured in nude manikin tests, but the value is 11% lower than it. This will help to set more accurate boundary conditions on garment surface in further simulations.