TRANSIENT HEAT TRANSFER IN A PERMEABLE FABRIC

SYSTEM UNDER HOT AIR AND STEAM JET IMPINGEMENT

Md. Ashraful Islam
Aashique Alam Rezwan
Sarzina Hossain
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

The field of protective garments is a wide range segment, and protective clothing is essential
requirement in daily business for the workers of Fire Fighting Department, Policemen and Navy
Military Staff and also for the workers in some chemical and bio hazardous industry. Fire
protective/flame retardant clothing has steadily improved over the years as new fabric materials
and improved designs have reached the market. But their performance is not been studied in
much details in Bangladesh for the safe keeping of their users. The present study focuses on the
performance of fire protective clothing under two major conditions, the Flame Blast and the
Steam Exposure. The experimental investigation will be conducted using a hot air jet impinging
on the fabric surface to mimic the flame blast condition. The steam exposure performance will
be conducted by exposing the fabric under steam produced from the boiler.

Jet impingement has many practical applications due to its high heat and mass transfer. There
are many factors affecting the heat transfer of jet impingement. They include the nozzle
diameter D, nozzle-to-surface distance L, nozzle-exit velocity, thermophysical properties of the
jet fluids. These factors are normally lumped into dimensionless groups: Nu, Re, Pr and L/D,
which are then correlated. In the present work, air is impinged perpendicularly upwards to the
fabric surface. The heating of air is done by setting up heater coil in the piping system. The local
heat transfer coefficient is then evaluated by measuring the temperature increased after the fabric
system in contact with the measuring plate.

Accidental exposure to direct steam jets or to a hot saturated environment is a potential hazard
for workers in many industries. Despite an effective potential risk, no details study on human
exposure to steam was found. Different biological risks can appear after steam accidents. The
main risk is a thermal one due to direct steam jet exposure and or to hot saturated vapor
environment created by hot steam entry in a closed room. It will affect all the human biological
tissues, perhaps with more pronounced lethal effects on specific organs (respiratory airways,
nervous structures). Condensation of water occurs on skin, clothing and perhaps in the
respiratory airways. Furthermore, a foggy environment would lead to a low visibility and to
difficulties in escaping. Thus, another purpose of our work in process is to create a data
collection on biological impact of steam exposure for elaborating efficient protective systems.

Firefighters face many risks when doing their job; the most frequent injuries are burns. Burn
injuries are costly to treat and, depending on the magnitude, greatly affect the livelihood of the
firefighter. Firefighters are trained to be aware of these threats and manage their risks. But the
danger of being burned and the loss of financial security is a constant worry for firefighter’s
every day. The data presents in the present work can be used to predict the burn conditions with
and without using their protective clothing.

Keywords: Transient heat transfer, Air impingement, Steam exposures, Protective clothing,
Permeable fabric, Skin burn injuries