WK70964 - New Test Method for Bench-scale Evaluation of Flame Resistant Clothing Materials for Protection Against Fire Simulations.

Work Item

ASTM WK70964

New Test Method for Bench-scale Evaluation of Flame Resistant Clothing Materials for Protection Against Fire Simulations.

1. Scope

This test method is used to provide predicted human skin burn injury for single-layer garment materials or protective clothing ensemble materials mounted on a bench-scale stationary instrumented cylinder, which are then exposed in a laboratory to a simulated fire environment having controlled heat flux, flame distribution, and duration. The average exposure heat flux is 84 kW/m2 (2 cal/cm2s), with durations up to 20 seconds.

Keywords

Flash Fire; Burn Injury Prediction; Bench-Scale; Protective Clothing

Rationale

Existing bench-scale methodologies (e.g. ASTM F2700), all of which have a single sensor, provide limited information. They provide only heat flux data through a flat fabric specimen, but ignore other physical responses like dimensional change and break-open. Large-scale tests (e.g. ASTM F1930) have limited availability and high cost of testing. They also have a larger number of non-fabric variables that may impact test results. This proposed Test Method will allow for generation of more information (from multiple sensors), while not introducing garment-level variables.

Details

Developed by Subcommittee: F23.80

Committee: F23

Staff Manager: Mary Mikolajewski

Work Item Status

Date Initiated: 12-09-2019

Technical Contact: Brian Shiels

Item: 001

Ballot: F23.80 (21-01)