Modeling of heat and moisture transfer within firefighter protective clothing with the moisture absorption of thermal radiation

• A model of heat and moisture transfer in firefighter protective clothing was developed.
• The absorption of thermal radiation by the moisture was considered.
• The effects of thermal radiation and moisture distribution were studied.
• The rates of moisture evaporation in different moisture distributions were compared.

This paper presents a model to study the heat and moisture transfer through multi-layer firefighter protective clothing with air gaps exposed to low level radiation. The model incorporates the absorption of thermal radiation by the moisture within each wet fabric layer and air gap. Numerical results compare well with the experimental measurements. Numerical simulations are conducted to study heat and moisture transfer through the protective clothing subjected to different levels of thermal radiation and at different moisture distributions. It is found that the temperature distribution and moisture evaporation are significantly impacted by the thermal radiation. In addition, the simulation results show the rate of moisture evaporation is constant when the moisture is located in the inner layers, however, separated in two stages by an initial and a second smaller value when the moisture is located in the outer shell or in both the outer shell and inner layers. It is demonstrated that the developed model can be used as a numerical tool to predict the heat and moisture transfer of the wetted clothing system entrapped with air gaps under different fire scenarios.