Evaluation of fire protective garments by using instrumented mannequin and model-based estimation of burn injuries

Quantitative evaluation of thermal protective garments to fire exposure represents an important step in the design of clothing for hazardous environments. In this paper an automated system for testing the garments under flash fire is presented. The system is built around a mannequin equipped with an array of thermocouples, which provide information about the distribution of temperatures on the mannequin surface during the fire exposure. In the paper we propose an algorithm which estimates the heat flux from temperature readings. In the next step, a skin simulation model is used to calculate the level of injury. The result of a flash fire experiment is time distribution of injuries across the mannequin. An example of experimental run is provided.