Thermal modeling of the system consisting of human skin and firefighter clothing

In this study, heat and moisture transfer in human skin and in firefighter clothing are examined. Firstly, for the human skin consisting of four layers, temperature distribution under different environmental conditions was found. In this model, there is a heat transfer from the skin surface to the radiation, convection and sweating mechanisms. The damage function in the tissue according to the temperature distribution was investigated. This model, created later, was expanded by adding moisture transport. Temperature distribution and concentration distribution were found. In addition, a parametric study was carried out to examine the effect of temperature and concentration distribution in the skin by changing the thermal parameters and ambient temperature. In the third model, a firefighter garment consisting of three layers of models created for human skin was added. There is an air gap between the garment layers and between the human skin surface and the garment. The heat transfer in case of exposure to hot gases is considered in the model. The damage function in the tissue during high temperature and flame exposure is calculated by the Arrhenius approach. In this study, the effects of various parameters (air gap width, gas temperature) were investigated. Numerical solution was performed using the COMSOL Multiphysics program. First, the geometry is created in the program and the initial and boundary conditions are defined. The Pennes bio-heat equation was used to calculate the heat transfer in the human skin. The program was analyzed using the finite element method using the 'Heat Transfer in Solid' module and the 'Transport of Diluted Species' module. It is aimed to estimate the number of burn injuries that may occur in the tissue in the created models.