Investigation of Feasibility of Developing Intelligent Firefighter-Protective Garments Based on the Utilization of a Water-Injection System

Abstract

ABSTRACT This research develops a new approach to designing and creating a prototype of an intelligent firefighter thermal-protective garment. During a flash fire exposure, this intelligent garment will absorb a significant amount of the incident heat flux due to evaporation of the injected water, thus limiting the temperature increase and the total heat flux to the firefighter's skin. A comprehensive mathematical model of heat and mass transport in the fabric layer during the flash fire exposure is suggested and numerically implemented using a finite-volume technique. A computational investigation is performed to optimize the performance of this novel garment system in terms of the activation temperature and the necessary amount of injected water.