Thermal Insulation Materials for Diver's Underwear Garment

摘要

The Navy Clothing and Textile Research Facility (NCTRF) conducted studies on commercially available foam and fibrous thermal insulating materials to determine those which would be effective in a diver's dry-suit underwear garment. An effective insulation had to allow the pressurized gaseous environment existing within the diver's dry suit to permeate the insulation, have good compressional resistance at hydrostatic pressures up to 2 psi (13.8 kPa), and provide an intrinsic thermal insulation value of 1.0 to 1.5 clo. Evaluations of candidate materials and comparisons with existing materials used in diver's dry-suit underwear indicated that a fine pore open cell foam and the polypropylene microfiber batt material having densities of approximately 0.12 gr/c cm and 0.05 gr/c cm and thermal insulation resistance of 1.8 and 2.11 clo/cm at 2 psi (13.8 kPa), respectively, would meet the thermal requirements for the underwear garment and would be superior to those presently being used. The foam compressed less than 30% at 2 psi (13.8 kPa). The fibrous material compressed 60% at 2 psi (13.8 kPa) but had such a high specific clo value incompressed (2.27 clo/cm) that thermal resistance at 2 psi (13.8 kPa) was still estimated to be 2.11 clo/cm.