Occupational workers in thermal exposure have frequent physical activities that may lead to fabric deformation of thermal protective clothing. To deeply understand the impact of fabric deformation on its dual thermal protective and thermal hazardous performance, a modified experimental instrument was used to simulate different extents of fabric tensile deformation and compression deformation. The results demonstrated that increasing tensile ratios during exposure decreased heat storage within a fabric system, but increased the skin absorbed energy. Tensile ratios had a more negative impact on the thermal protective performance of a single-layer fabric than of a double-layer fabric system. Increasing tensile ratios during cooling decreased heat discharge to the skin, but the applied compression significantly improved the heat discharge. In addition, regression models were established to examine the effect of fabric deformation and demonstrated that the thermal hazardous performance of fabrics was more affected by compression than by tensile deformation.
Keywords: fabric deformation; heat discharge; heat storage; thermal hazards; thermal protective clothing.