Experimental Study on the Thermal Protection Enhancement of Novel Phase Change Material Integrated Structural Firefighting Gloves Under High-Heat Exposures

Details

• Personal Author:
  Pollard J ; Wang X ; Xu SS ; Zhao W
• Description:
  Phase change material (PCM) has been widely studied for efficient thermal management. This work is the first holistic experimental research on the temperature control performance of PCM-integrated firefighters' gloves. The results showed that the thermal protection time could be extended by 2-5 times in the direct contact to hot object tests and around 1.5 times under the radiant/convective heat source tests when embedding a 1-mm-thick PCM layer in gloves. The PCM of melting point 68 degrees C showed the best thermal protection performance in all test conditions since it had the most efficient phase change function during the heating process. Considering the PCM location effect, the PCM with lower melting point (68 degrees C) showed better performance when located close to external environment (heat source) and the PCM with higher melting point (108 degrees C and 151 degrees C) showed better performance when located close to hand. The optimum PCM thickness would be in the range of 0.5-1.0 mm for both thermal protection improvement and hand dexterity purposes. In addition, the time for continuous temperature rises on the hand surface at post-heat exposure was longer when embedding PCM in firefighters' gloves due to the stored latent heat in PCM. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Firefighters Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Protective Clothing Safety Temperature
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Structural Firefighting Gloves Fire Fighters Gloves Glove Thermal Protection Improvement Hand Protection Materials Testing Parametric Studies Personal Protective Equipment Phase Change Material PPE Temperature Control Performance Temperature Effects

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• ISSN:
  2214-157X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Oklahoma ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 6 ; Pennsylvania ; Texas
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  NPPTL - National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  56
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20069505
• Citation:
  Case Stud Therm Eng 2024 Apr; 56:104286
• Contact Point Address:
  Weihuan Zhao, Department of Natural Sciences, Gregg Wadley College of Science & Health Professions, Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, OK, 74464
• Email:
  zhaow@nsuok.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2024
• NORA Priority Area:
  Public Safety
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Case Studies in Thermal Engineering
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:31534f3c78814be0ab0f1c7e09a390834cbcd996f237b50773457f295f117fc85b6f69d3df600200eb1612e862db06a81c8799744382cf05f0c29a9125711e1b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/207938/cdc_207938_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 11.38 MB ]