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Fire Technology, 52, 16671696, 2016 2016 The Author(s).
Manufactured in The United States DOI: 10.1007/s10694-015-0555-1
Joseph M. Willi and Gavin P. Horn*, Illinois Fire Service Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 11 Gerty Drive, Champaign, IL 61820, USA
Joseph M. Willi and Daniel Madrzykowski, National Institute of Standards andTechnology, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA
Received: 17 August 2015/Accepted: 13 December 2015
Abstract. Detailed characterization of a reghters typical thermal exposures during live-re training and responses can provide important insights into the risks faced and the necessary protections, protocols, and standards required. In order to gather data on representative thermal conditions from a reghters continually varying local environment in a live-re training exercise, a portable heat ux and gas temperature measurement system was created, calibrated, and integrated into reghter personal protective equipment (PPE). Data were collected from 25 live-re training exposures during seven dierent types of scenarios. Based on the collected data, mild training environments generally exposed reghters to temperatures around 50C and heat uxes around 1 kW/m2, while severe training conditions generally resulted in temperatures between 150C and 200C with heat uxes between 3 kW/m2 and 6 kW/m2. For every scenario investigated, the heat ux data portrayed a more severe environment than the temperature data when interpreted using established thermal classes developed by the National Institute for Standards and Technology for electronic equipment used by rst responders. Local temperatures from the portable measurement system were compared with temperatures measured by stationary thermocouples installed in the training structure for 14 dierent exposures. It was determined the stationary temperatures represented only a rough approximate bound of the actual temperature of the immediate training environment due to the typically coarse distribution of these sensors throughout the structure and their relative (xed) distance from the re sets. The portable thermal measurement system has provided new insights into the integration of electronic sensors with reghter PPE and the conditions experienced by reghters in live-re training scenarios, which has promise to improve the safety and health of the re service.
Keywords: Fireghters, Heat ux, Thermal environment, Thermal class, Live-re training, Flashover simulator
* Correspondence should be addressed to: Gavin P. Horn, E-mail: [email protected]
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