Performance standards and test method development

The workplace hazards determine the protection needed and dictate the testing that is appropriate for the textiles and protective garments selected for various end-uses. Certain work places have always required protection from heat and flame (foundries, firefighting), but the interest in protective clothing has inaeased over the last 30 years, as reflected by the performance specifications for workwear and test methods developed to evaluate flame resistance and thermal protection (radiant, convective, hot liquids, and steam). 

Haase has extensively reviewed the topic of fire resistant clothing standards and regulations, and Shaw also discussed the use of standards in the selection of protective clothing materials. Horrocks lists many standard test methods for flame resistant textile applications. 

Song et al. developed a numerical model of moisture transport in thermal protective clothing during exposure to a flash fire. The model assumes that textiles are treated as porous media The authors demonstrated that the model can be used to predict the thermal response of a protective fabric and the effects of air gaps in a 

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. 

Hummel et a/. have developed testing apparatns consisting of manikin hands to evaluate protective gloves. Others have focused on posture adjustable manikins to incorporate the effect of motion on garment flammability and/or thermal protection. 

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