Numerical Estimation of the Thermal Response of Thermal Protective Clothing-Air Gap-Human Skin Micro-system

Thermal protective clothing has been recognized as the primary shielding against emergency fire hazard and inflammable gas leakage. Therefore,the thermal response of human covered with thermal protective clothing under high temperature is the key work to investigate the thermal insulation of thermal protective clothing. A coupling model composed of thermal protective clothing,air gap and human skin is established and the temperature of the micro-system is numerically solved via the finite element method( FEM).Especially,the heat transfer of air gap located between clothing and human skin considering conduction and radiation is established while the human skin layers involve the effect of blood perfusion. Then the effect of thermophysical properties( thermal conductivity and volumetric capacity) of fabric and thickness of fabric and air on the thermal response of the micro-system is elucidated and compared.The results indicate that the volumetric heat capacity of fabric is the key parameter to affect the thermal shielding performance of thermal protective clothing,and the thicker fabric thickness and air gap thickness can improve the thermal protective properties of the micro-system.