NFPA 1977 TECHNICAL COMMITTEE ON WILDLAND FIRE FIGHTING PROTECTIVE CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT. January 22-23, 2014 San Diego, CA MINUTES

Transcription

1 NFPA 1977 TECHNICAL COMMITTEE ON WILDLAND FIRE FIGHTING PROTECTIVE CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT January 22-23, 2014 San Diego, CA MINUTES Principal Members in Attendance: Rick Swan, Chair Marc Mousseau, Secretary Richard Brown Steven Corrado Vincent Diaz Tricia Hock R.J. Johnson Kirk Kushen David Moore Anthony Petrilli Brian Shiels Richard Weise IAFF Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center NVFC UL Atlantic Thread & Supply Company SEI US Department of the Interior Kern County FD Glendale FD USDA Forest Service PBI Performance Products Southern Area Fire Equipment Research Alternate Members in Attendance: Dennis Davis Joel Fassbinder John Rihn USDA Forest Service IAFF MSA Guests in Attendance: Matt Elmore Dave Haston Godot Apuzzo Ryan Davidson Dave Teter Roger Barker Zeb Atkinson Grant Hunter William Smith Charles Dunn Tim Durby Ruth Cooper Karen Bengtson Nicole Collins Jim Roth Rick Hutchinson David Trebisacci Bullard US Forest Service US Forest Service Western Shelter Cal Fire NCSU Invista Lacrosse Footwear Tencate Protective Fabrics Tencate Protective Fabrics Phoenix FD CALPIA CALPIA CALPIA Wildland Firefighter Foundation Cal Fire NFPA Staff Liaison

2 1. Chairman Swan called the meeting to order at 0900 hrs. 2. The Minutes of the Technical Committee web conference of October 2, 2013 were approved. 3. NFPA Staff Liaison Dave Trebisacci covered the procedures for meetings and also provided an update to changes that have occurred related to document processing. 4. Review of Public Input to NFPA 1977 and creation of First Revisions (Please see the NFPA 1977 First Draft Report when available at Next Edition tab, under First Draft). 5. Dr. Roger Barker of North Carolina State University provided an overview of NCSU research on wildland firefighter protective clothing (please see presentation attached to these minutes). 6. A request to create a selection, care and maintenance standard for wildland fire fighting protective clothing and equipment will be on the NFPA Standards Council agenda for approval at the Council s March 3-4, 2014 meeting. 7. The topic of fire shelters was discussed by the technical committee. The TC will submit a request to the Standards Council for approval to create a stand alone document for fire shelters. 8. Action items for Second Draft Meeting: Garment Dimensions Top Line Gloves Ryan Davidson Vince Diaz (drawing and definitions) Anthony Petrilli (send gloves to UL) 9. Next meeting date and time to be determined 10. The meeting adjourned on January 23, 2014 at 1600 hrs. Submitted by Marc Mousseau Secretary

3 NC State Research on Wildland Firefighter Protective Clothing Dr. Roger Barker NCSU Center for Research on Textile Protection and Comfort NFPA 1977 Technical Committee Meeting San Diego, California January 22 23, 2014

4 Co PI: Dr. Alex Hummel Heat stress/comfort t Marika Walker(MS TE) JulishaJoyner(MS TE) Kevin Ross Radiant heat protection John Morton Aslanis Al Kyle Watson(MS TE) Alex Hummel Project technical manager: A. Shawn Deaton NCSU Research Team

5 Key Questions for Wildlands d PPE How much thermal protection potecto is needed? What is the right heat exposure intensity for testing wildland firefighter protective clothing? What is the best balance between protection and optimum heat stress and comfort? Test Methods: What test methods are currently used in the standards? d?wh What h should ld be used? How do these methods need to be advance/modified? Systems level or Benchlevel testing?

6 Reasonable Maximum Exposure (RME) From 2010 Cal Fire Wildland Firefighting Hazard & Risk Assessment (2010) RME based off of Cohen Thermal Radiation Model RME = 7.1 kw/m 2

7 Oh Other RME Measurement and Predictions i Author Findings Comments Who, Where, Model/Experiment CAL FIRE RME of 7.1 kw/m 2 Cohen thermal radiation model Project Aquarius 4 Phani K. Raj RME of 8.6 kw/m 2 with average of < 2 kw/m 2 RME of 6.3 kw/m 2 with average of 5 kw/m 2 Australia, Experimental fires were lit and measured via airborne infrared imagery Technology and Management Systems, USA, Theoretical radiation model Sullivan, Ellis, and RME of 6.7 kw/m 2 CSIRO Forestry and Forest Knight Products, Australia, Stefan Boltzmann thermal radiation model

8 Comparison of Test Method dheat Fluxes 1000 Extraordinary ( kw/m 2 ) 300 Air Temper rature ( C) Routine (0-2 kw/m 2 ) Ordinary ( kw/m 2 ) RME RPP TPP Thermal Radiation (kw/m2)

9 CAL FIRE RPP and THL Requirements CAL Fire sought a performance basis to reduce heat stress and increase protection RME provides rational basis for RPP requirements RPP requirement tfrom 7 to 10 cal/cm 2 Making thinner garments non compliant with CAL OSHA Standard RPP of 10 at 7.1 kw/m 2 results in 60 seconds of protection Effects of clothing layers not considered Issues with repeatability of RPP test Increased THL from 450 to 500 W/m2 Physiological benefit of increased THL needed to be scientifically demonstrated

10 Project tstudies Study the properties p of wildland clothing materials that affect radiant heat protection and heat stress. Develop and demonstrate improved test methods for characterizing the RPP at both fabric and whole garment levels (RadMan and RPP) Conduct physiological based human wear trials to determine correlations between humans, sweating hot plate(thl), sweating manikin, and physiological manikin

11 Current tnfpa 1977 Requirements Radiant a Protective e Performance (RPP) 7 cal/cm 2 for single layer fabric samples Total Heat Loss (THL) Sweating Hot Plate: 450 W/m 2 for single layer fabric samples 500 Degree Oven Test No melt, drip, shrink of clothing materials

12 Comparing ASTM F1939 and F2731 Investigation of Apparatus differences Heat sources Sensors Heat flux differences 21 kw/m kw/m 2 Burn injury models Henrique s Stoll

13 Standard drpp Test ASTM F1939 Bank of radiant quartz tubes used as radiant heat source Fabric samples exposed to 21 kw/m 2 (0.5 cal/cm 2 s) Thermal sensor behind fabric measures heat flux reaching skin Exposed until a 2 nd degree burn is predicted based on Stoll burn criteria i

14 RPP Designed for 21 to 84 kw/m 2 RME set to 7.1 kw/m 2 Uses quarts tubes Uses copper slug sensor Issues with saturation Uses Stoll Curve Not validated after 30 seconds He eat flux (cal/cm 2 ) Time (sec) Limitations of RPP Method

15 ASTM F 2731 Designed for lower level heat fluxes, or RME(5 10 kw/m 2 ) Utilizes black body ceramic heat source that is more likely to stay at steady state than quartz tubes Water cooled sensor to mimichuman skin response and prevent heat saturation in long duration exposures Uses more sophisticated skin burn model

16 RdM RadMan Development This research is developing a totally new instrumented manikin test system for evaluating the radiant heat protection provided by whole garment systems Radiant Heat Exposures: 5 To 21 kw/m 2 Exposure durations: 5 seconds to >5 minutes Provides burn injury predictions specific to location on the body

17 How RdM RadMan Differs From PyroMan PyroMan : High intensity, short duration heat exposure (84 kw/m 2 ) Represents a flashover scenario Systems level version of TPP RadMan : Low intensity, long duration exposures (7.1 kw/m 2 ) Represents wildlands Reasonable Maximum Exposure Systems level version of RPP

18 RdM RadMan Thermal Manikin System Project: Tested d10 wildland d ensembles ranging from lightweight to heavy weight and multi layer

19 Measuring Heat tstress Sweating Hot Plate Sweating Manikin Physiological Testing

20 NFPA 1977 Total Heat Loss of no less than 450 W/m 2 (garment fabric) THL value set to 450 W/m 2 by the NFPA committee There is no experimental basis for this THL pass/fail criterion. When total surface area of reinforcements exceeds Table , each reinforcement section has the same THL requirements as full garment. Prevents manufacturers from making a double layer product and only testing the outer layer.

21 Sweating Hot tplate(thl) American Society for Testing and Materials Mt il (ASTM) F 1868 Standard Test Method for Thermal and Evaporative Resistance of Clothing Materials Using a Sweating Hot Plate 25 C; 65% RH; wind speed: 1 m/s

22 ASTM F1291 / ASTM F2370 Human form skin model Garment Characterization Insulation Thermal Resistance (R t ) Breathability Sweating Manikin Evaporative Resistance * (R et ) *Inversely related

23 Sweating manikin

24 Sweating Manikin(effect of clothing layers) USFS Cal Fire

25 Rif Reinforcements Garment meets the Garment meets the 1977 standards!!

26 Project toutcomes The effects of fabric constructions and clothing layers on RPP and THL performance is being qualified in systematically designed experiments Our findings will contribute information that can be used to design and select heat resistant materials with optimum RPP/THL balance for wildland firefighter clothing Advanced instrumented manikins and controlled human physiological studies are providing an unprecedented basis for correlating THL requirements with heat stress reduction in wildland d firefighter f suits

27 Project toutcomes New optimized RPP testing procedure has been developed and demonstrated. New method has been shown to provide more accurate and stable characterizationof of the RPP performance of materials used in the construction of wildland firefighter PPE Lower RME radiant heat testing exposure has been shown to increase single layer RPP index, opening the door to the use of thinner clothing materials, to the benefit of higher THL, heat stress reduction, and improved wear comfort

28 Translation to NFPA 1977 Standard d New testing methods and protocols provide information and possible options for the next NFPA 1977 Standardimproved technical basis for RPP and THL requirements Systems level testing( Sweat manikin and Radman to evaluate garment layering and design effects) Why rely on layering design requirement for whole garment?

29 The purpose of this presentation was to overview a research project that may be of interest to the wildland firefighter community. The research team is currently working to publish the details of this research in peer reviewed scientific journals. Dissemination of the findings of this project to the Fire Service is a priority of this project. No specific recommendations regarding NFPA standards are being made at this time. Caveat