Thermal protective performance of silica Aerogel felt bedded firefighters’ protective clothing under fire conditions

Abstract

The addition of silica aerogel felt (SAF) to firefighters’ protective clothing (FPC) is an innovation with the potential to enhance the thermal insulation capacity of FPC. In order to explore this technology, this paper describes the results of an experiment that determined the thermal protective performance of FPC with SAF under wood crib fire conditions. We also performed an experiment using FPC materials without SAF and compared the results. Finally, we compared the thermal decomposition of commercial thermal liner material and silica aerogel. The results demonstrate that the thermal performance of SAF bedded sample is better than that without. The maximum temperature difference was about 20 °C. The thermal performance of SAF bedded sample increased with increasing the SAF thick. Additionally, the thermal stability of silica aerogel is good, which can reduce the risk of thermal decomposition during high temperatures.