Use of a Sweating Manikin Headform to Evaluate the Thermal Burden of Firefighter Protective Hoods

摘要

Protective fighter hoods have been recently modified to accommodate for protection from particulate hazards. However, the comfort effects of introducing this additional technical layer into protective hoods has not yet been investigated at either the material or garment level. Five traditional protective firefighter hoods of the same type and five particulate-blocking firefighter hoods of the same type were tested for predicted total heat loss (THL) in triplicate on a sweating manikin headform. Currently, a standard testing procedure (STP) does not exist for this headform. Establishing an STP for this instrument will allow these new hoods to be tested in a similar manner to which they are used and at the garment-level. This paper will explore the development of a STP for protective firefighter hoods at the garment-level using a sweating manikin head to obtain a hood's predicted total heat loss.