Influence of air-permeability of NBC suits on vapour resistance and evaporation of sweat
conference paper
It has been found that the suits for protection against Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare (NBC), which are currently used in the Dutch army, are not suitable for hot climates. The heat strain of the wearer is too high and the body temperature rises quickly. Recently, a new NBC suit became available. While maintaining protection, this new suit has an outer layer with an increased air-permeability (0.73 ms at 200 Pa) compared with the current NBC suit (0.37 ms at 200 Pa). This should lead to an improved ventilation of the microclimate under the suit and therefore, lead to a decrease in vapor resistance. As a consequence there should be an increased possibility for the wearer to evaporate sweat, leading to increased tolerance times for working in the heat. To evaluate the expected benefits, we performed 2 studies comparing the current and new NBC suits with respect to the vapor resistance and the total heat strain to the wearer.
TNO Identifier
9854
Source title
8th International Conference on Environmental Ergonomics, San Diego, CA, USA, 18-23 October 1998
Collation
4 p.
Pages
183-186
Files
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