Evaluation Trend of Thermal and Wet Comfort of Fire-fighting Clothing

Firefighters often face high temperature and humidity in their work. Therefore, the thermal and wet comfort of fire suits is an important indicator. In order to improve the thermal and wet comfort of fire fighting clothing, the more advanced technical methods at present include choosing different fiber materials, changing the structure, structure, thickness, lamination and composite mode of fiber fabric, etc. With the development of technology and the implementation of "people-oriented" concept, the evaluation methods of thermal and wet comfort of fire-fighting clothing are constantly improving. The evaluation of thermal and wet comfort of fire-fighting clothing will include objective and subjective.

The objective evaluation methods can be divided into two directions: the warm prosthetic evaluation method and the physiological evaluation method. Thermal manikin evaluation methods mainly include dry thermal manikin, sweating thermal manikin and Soakable thermal manikin. Physiological evaluation methods mainly use temperature and humidity sensors to test the temperature and humidity changes of microclimate in fire-fighting clothing, and use multiple physiological indicators testers to measure physiological indicators such as metabolism, body nuclear temperature, average skin temperature, heart rate, sweating volume, body surface area and so on. In addition, the image of temperature field close to the skin surface can also be taken by a refrigerated infrared thermal imager to analyze and evaluate the thermal and wet comfort performance of fire-fighting clothing.

The subjective evaluation method mainly evaluates the thermal-wet comfort performance of fire-fighting clothing through questionnaire survey rating and actual wear of human body. Subjective perception of hot and humid evaluation includes: cold, warm, cool, hot, stuffy, wet, damp, sticky, cool, non-sweat absorption, sweat flow, slippery and so on; grading evaluation is divided into three, five or seven grades (the higher the subjective sensitivity, the higher the corresponding rating). Or the artificial climate chamber can be used to simulate the special environment of constant temperature, high and low temperature, constant humidity and heat, and alternating humidity and heat to evaluate the thermal and humidity comfort of fire-fighting clothing in different environments.

There are great differences between subjective and objective evaluation of thermal and wet comfort of fire-fighting clothing, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Domestic research direction mainly tends to physical evaluation of clothing fabrics performance, but there are few studies on physiological and psychological aspects. Generally, the combination of subjective and objective evaluation methods can comprehensively reflect the thermal and wet comfort performance of fire-fighting clothing.