Thermal Protective Performance of Aerogel Embedded Firefighter's Protective Clothing

Abstract

Firefighters’ protective clothing (FPC) is a four-component ensemble that protects the human body against the following properties: a. radiation; b. flashover conditions; c. puncture and abrasion hazards; while still maintaining an adequate level of dexterity and comfort. Therefore, the thermal protective performance (TPP) of FPC is very important. Generally, FPC with higher TPP will result in fewer injuries. In this study, aerogel is proposed to be used in FPC to improve its TPP, and the feasibility is examined. The results show that the temperature on the back surface of the FPC samples that were filled with aerogel was 100 °C lower than that of those unfilled FPC samples under the same heat exposure. However, a short temperature jump occurred during the tests due to the penetration of infrared radiation (IR) light. In addition, the weight of the FPC sample in which the aerogel was embedded was lessened about 24.3%. It is concluded that filling aerogel in FPC can effectively improve its TPP and lessen its weight, while some additives must be used to absorb or scatter the IR light that causes the temperature jump.