Skin Burn Translation Model for Evaluating Hand Protection in Flash Fire Exposures

A model is described for use in translating measured heat flux to predict second and third degree hand burn injury in fire exposures. The model adapts a burn translation algorithm for estimating burn injuries used in established instrumented fire test manikin technologies. It facilitates more accurate prediction of burns to human hands by accounting for the cylindrical geometry of the fingers, bone tissue beneath the skin, and different skin thickness data that represents the different areas of the hand. A numerical modeling approach is used to demonstrate the response of the skin burn model for predicting hand burn injury in heat exposures encountered in fire manikin testing.