• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.97-103
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• 2014

To ensure adequate protection from the risk of burns, fire fighter's turnout has a composite of more than three components and air gaps between layers of materials. During the flame exposure, radiation and convection heat transfer occurs in the air gap, thus the air gap acts as a thermal resistance with non-linear characteristics. Therefore, in this study, the experiments were performed to identify the effect of various air gap width (0~7 mm) on the thermal protective performance of fire fighter's clothing. The temperatures on each layer and RPP (Radiant Protective Performance, the most effective index representing the thermal protective performance) were measured with various incident radiant heat fluxes. The temperature at the rear surface of the garment decreased and RPP increased with increasing air gap width because the thermal resistance increased. Especially, it could be found that RPP value and air gap width has almost linear relation for the constant incident heat flux conditions. Thus relatively simple RPP predictive equation was suggested for various incident heat flux and air gap conditions.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2014

Despite advancements in the development of synthetic fibers and materials that provide better insulation, fire burn injuries remain a significant issue. To ensure adequate protection, clothing and equipment must be selected on the basis of performance. There are different standards like ISO standards applicable to each of the various types of clothing used by fire fighters. But, in most cases, the tests are performed in the conditions of high heat flux exposure, the clothing material can be destroyed easily. Thus the effective way to investigate the protective performance for the low (radiant) heat flux conditions should be needed. Therefore improved RPP (Radiant Protective Performance) test method based on the onset of pain burn injury was suggested. Experiments were performed to verify the proposed method with current protective clothing for fire fighters and the transient heat transfer characteristics were identified, also. Moreover, several protective performance indices were acquired from experimental results to analyze their relations.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 2013.04a
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• pp.78-79
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• 2013

소방보호복은 화재진압현장에서 소방관들을 화상 위험으로부터 보호하기 위해 가장 많이 착용하는 장비이다. 소방보호복의 열보호 특성을 정확히 파악하고 있어야 소방관들의 화재진압작업시 위험요소를 적절히 판단하여 화상 사고 등을 예방할 수 있다. 따라서 본 연구는 복사열 노출에 따른 소방보호복의 열보호 성능을 정확히 측정 및 분석하기 위해 실험 장비를 제작하고 실험을 수행하였다. 소방 보호복의 구성 재료 각각에 대해 복사열 노출을 시켜 시간에 따른 피복 전후면의 온도차와 통과 열유속을 측정하여 소방 보호복의 열보호 성능 특성을 살펴보았다.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.227-236
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• 2018

As consciousness of safety becomes an important social issue, the demand for protective clothing is increasing. Conventional flame-retardant cotton working wear has low durability, and working wear with m-aramid fibers are stiff, heavy, less permeable, and expensive. In this study, recycled m-aramid and cotton have been blended to produce woven fabric of different compositions to enhance high performance and comfort to solve aforementioned problems. The fabrics were analyzed according to constituents and various structural factors. Mechanical properties were measured using KES-FB system. The measured thermal properties are TGA, $Q_{max}$, TPP and RPP. Fabric with polyurethane yarn covered by m-aramid/cotton spun yarn is observed to have good wearability. The fabric of open end spun yarn showed more stiffness than that of ring spun yarn. The sample with the high count of yarn has more smooth surface. In addition, high m-aramid content fabric is considered to have relatively high stiffness when using as clothing. In TGA the fabric with higher m-aramid content showed more stable decomposition behavior. The fabric having rough surface showed lower heat transfer properties in $Q_{max}$. The influence of the fabric thickness was important in convection and radiant heat test.