Thermal comfort properties of firefighters' clothing with underwear

Abstract

Optimal comfort will enable the wearer to work efficiently over long periods of time and help to protect the body from imminent overheating. The thermal performance of fire fighters' protective clothing is primarily based on the thermophysical properties of the materials that are used to construct the clothing. In this study, we have used new fire resistant underwear. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the single fabric layer thermal comfort behaviours of underwear, outer shell, moisture barrier and thermal barrier fabrics together with their three-layered and four-layered combinations to understand their multilayer fabric thermal comfort performances.