Effects of Environmental Stress on the Reliability of Flame and Heat Resistance Fabrics for Firefighters Clothing

Abstract

Methods to evaluate the useful life time of flame and heat resistance fabrics for firefighters clothing were studied. As part of this study, the effects of individual environmental stress on the durability of Nomex fabrics for firefighters were investigated to improve the reliability assessment method for firefighter’s clothing. We estimate the failure of Nomex fabrics with degradation of tear resistance and heat transmission performance. Five environmental stresses were chosen to simulate the use in the field. These factors are weathering with UV ray, radiation from heat, flexing, abrasion and cleaning procedures. 2-factorial experimental design was used to analyze the effects of five individual environmental factors on the failure of Nomex fabric. As a result, we found the main failure cause of Nomex fabrics were UV ray and radiation heat.