Effective firefighters’ clothing design requires great consideration of physiological comfort factors including sensorial or tactile comfort. The friction between the fabric surface and the skin, and the fabric surface roughness are the two important components in the evaluation of the sensorial comfort of fabrics and materials. The objective of this study is to investigate and compare the material surface characteristics of fabrics suitable for the inner layer of structural clothing for firefighters. We quantitatively examine and evaluate the effects of the fabrics’ composition, construction and their physical parameters on the surface characteristics, as relevant to the practical wear and maintenance of the garments. In addition, the influence of the presence of moisture in the fabrics due to the sweat absorption during strenuous physical activity on the fabrics surface characteristics is addressed.

In this paper, a novel self‐healable and stretchable microfluidics system for next generation wearable lab‐on‐a‐chip is presented. An imine‐based precursor with various metal sources (Co(II), Fe(II), and Zn(II)) is used for the development of an intrinsically autonomous self‐healing microfluidic device. Microfluidics fabrication is performed on the self‐healing substrate layer using a mold transfer method. The mechanical properties of the resulting layer are evaluated using tensile strain pull testing. Microfluidic characteristics including fluid flow, wettability, leak, and fluorescence compatibility are investigated to understand its performance in classical microfluidic applications. The new microfluidic devices are also characterized using scanning‐electron microscopy to evaluate the mold transfer capability. The self‐healing microfluidics and the corresponding detailed fluidic characterization presented in this paper will open new opportunities for microfluidic lab on a chip development for various applications, especially in wearable electronics.

Flexible pressure sensors with self-healing abilities for wearable electronics are being developed, but generally either lack autonomous self-healing properties or require sophisticated material processing methods. To address this challenge, we...

To increase the efficiency of the high-temperature installation (HTI), several design options for air-permeable insulation in the outer furnace body are considered, differing in the location of heat-exchange intensifiers(HEI) - dimples in the form of spherical segments. As a result of a computational experiment, an option was established in which the heat losses are minimal, and the temperature of the heated air directed to combustion is maximum.