An exploration of enhancing thermal protective clothing performance by incorporating aerogel and phase change materials

Abstract

Summary Thermal liners play a critical role in thermal protective performance for firefighter gear. Effective engineering of textile material is necessary to enhance this protective performance. A modified thermal protective erformance (TPP) tester was used to study the influence of incorporating aerogel and microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCMs) in thermal liners (including a traditional thermal liner, phase‐change layer, and aerogel layer) and the relevant parameters associated with enhanced thermal liner performance. Two different phase‐transition temperature (45°C and 50°C) of MPCM were selected. The samples were exposed to a medium intensity radiation of 15 kW/m2 for 240 seconds, and a skin burn model was applied for second‐degree burn prediction. Given the selected, results showed that the best TPP in this study was achieved when the phase‐transition temperature of MPCM was 45°C and the layering order consisted of the traditional thermal layer (closest to heat source), followed by an aerogel layer, and a final MPCM layer. The predicted second‐degree burn time was 218.3 seconds and increased by 90% compared with only containing traditional thermal liner with a thickness of 5 mm. For all 3 materials contained in the thermal liner, the relationship between absorbed energy and predicted second‐degree skin burn time indicated that they had a remarkable negative linear correlation (R2 was 0.9792). The experimental data and predicted results were in good agreement, with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.9911. The findings provide a scientific basis for future textile engineering and a novel approach to improve TPP.

Thermal protective performance of firefighting protective clothing incorporated with phase change material in fire environments

“…Shaid et al 26 imbedded aerogels and PCMs in the thermal protective clothing to reduce the flammability of fabrics and improve the thermal protective performance. Zhang et al 27 selected two kinds of PCMs with different phase change temperatures (45°C and 50°C). The effects of the PCM and aerogel on the thermal protective performance were investigated under a medium intensity radiation of 15 kW/m 2 .…”

Materials in advanced design of personal protective equipment: a review

“…To this end, fillers with high thermal conductivity could be added, such as graphene, CNTs and metal nanoparticles [ 73 ] . Besides, since paraffin is not fire retardant, it should be encapsulated when applied in firefighting clothes 72 , 74 .…”

Modeling of thermal performance of multilayer protective clothing exposed to radiant heat

“…against liquid chemical agents), their thermophysiological properties may affect the user's safety. This complex issues are the subject of research [1,4,[14][15][16][17]. Houshyar et al [4] found that it is possible to improve the thermophysiological comfort properties of firefighters protective clothing by incorporation of superabsorbent fibres into the inner-layer fabric.…”

“…Rossi et al [16] analyzed the steam transfer through different types of textile layers in firefighter's clothing. Zhang et al [17] studied a critical role of thermal liners in thermal protective performance for firefighter gear. The work revealed positive impact of incorporating aerogel and microencapsulated phase change materials on protective properties of functional clothing.…”