Citation

Tian M, Li J. Int. J. Occup. Safety Ergonomics 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Key Laboratory of Clothing Design & Technology, Ministry of Education, Donghua University, Shanghai 200051, China.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Centralny Instytut Ochrony Pracy - Państwowy Instytut Badawczy, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10803548.2019.1700665

PMID

31795859

Abstract

An approach was proposed to predict skin burns during heat exposure based on Computational Fluid Dynamics and Python language. Both of uniform and heterogeneous skin thickness distributions of the whole body were considered and significant differences were observed. 100% second degree burns were reached for uniform skin model after 4 s flash fire, and maintained during cooling phase. Third degree burns occurred for the heterogeneous skin model during fire exposure, and the proportion increased in cooling phase.

RESULTS indicated that model with uniform skin thickness would probably overestimate skin burns in the early stage of fire exposure. The prediction at the latter stage of model with heterogeneous skin thickness tended to be more serious. The ignoring of blood perfusion and dynamic thermophysical parameters of skin model was the limitation of this study. Nevertheless, this method provide basis for further advancements in thermal protective ensembles, to enhance the occupational safety of the firefighters.

Language: en

Keywords

burn injuries; fire exposure; firefighters; skin thickness; thermal protective clothing