Abstract
The pattern of the firefighter's movement during fire exposure remarkably affects the protective performance of the firefighting suit. In addition, thermal energy transfer through the suit to the body, which determines the protective performance of the suit, takes place primarily by radiation heat transfer. Therefore, this study numerically investigates the influence of reducing the radiation heat transfer between the layers of the firefighting suit and from the suit to the body on the protective performance of the suit for different patterns of the firefighter's movement. Specifically, the influence of reducing the emissivity (from 0.9 to 0.1) of the backside surface of each layer of the suit on the protective performance of the suit was explored for a variation in the frequency (from 0 rps to 4 rps) and amplitude (from 0.5 mm to 3 mm) of the periodic motion of the suit relative to the body. The results showed that reducing the emissivity of the backside surface of any of the layers of the suit improves the protective performance of the suit for high frequencies and low amplitudes of the motion. Moreover, reducing the emissivity of the backside surface of the thermal liner layer has the highest effect among the layers of the suit on the protective performance of the suit.