Manikin tests

Camenzind, M.A., Dale, D.J., and Rossi, R.M. 2007. Manikin test for flame engulfment evaluation of protective clothing Historical review and development of a new ISO standard. Fire Mater., 31(5) 285-296. 

In manikin testing, the validity is higher since not the textile but the garment is tested. Flammability testing on manikins, for instance, is more realistic than textiles only. For evaluation of thermal load, modem manikins can simulate sweating and movement. Manikin measurements show a better reproducibility than human measurements for thermal insulation, but fit is a critical factor (Meinander et al., 2004). 

According to the manikin tests, the impervious Evolution Specialty had a higher resistance to evaporative heat transfer and a lower permeability index (I.e., a lower percent of evaporative cooling possible) than the other gowns. However, the impervious Gore prototype had thermal characteristics similar to those of the regular gowns (i.e., resistance values were lower). 

Rossi et al. proposed the nse of total transferred energy as a method of assessing protection in flame engnlfment manikin tests rather than bum injury prediction. This concept is to be incorporated into a current revision of ISO 13506. Note that at the time of writing, ISO 13506 is being split into parts 1 and 2. Part 1 will focus on the determination of total transferred energy without reference to body bum, while part 2 will use skin bnm models to predict bum injury using data from part 1. 

By using the manikin tests and human trials, many researchers have assessed thermal comfort performance of different types of regular and specialized clothing (Barker, 2008 Bhattacharjee and Kothari, 2009 Famworth, 1983 Hes et al., 1996 Huck and... 

Meinander, H., 1999. Extraction of data from sweating manikin test. In 3rd International Meeting on Thermal Manikin Testing, Sweden. 

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