Correlation and difference between stoll criterion and damage integral model for burn evaluation of thermal protective clothing

Empirical Stoll criterion and the damage integral model are two methods that are often used for burn injury prediction in the evaluation of thermal protective clothing. As researchers have previously reported different burn results from these two methods, a quantitative analysis on the correlation and difference between them is conducted by numerical simulation and experimental studies. By introducing and calculating the factor of accumulated energy on the skin surface, the Stoll criterion, the damage integral model and experimental cases are correlated on the same scale, to allow for comparisons. Results showed that there is discrepancy between the simulated burn curve and Stoll curve before a material test begins. Also, the non-rectangular heat shape beneath fabrics was found to accelerate skin burn injury. As the Stoll curve assumes constant heat intensity, it underestimates the severity of burn injury. It is suggested that every damage integral model should be calibrated with empirical burn data before application. Once it reaches good agreement with the empirical burn data, it will promise more realistic predictions in material tests, as the realistic heat boundary is used.