Assessment of Clothing Permeation Using an Instrumented Heated and Sweating Manikin

The body protection of soldiers working in extreme climatic or tropical conditions requires a particular protective clothing that allows them to perform their mission. Protective suits, increasing insulation and reducing sweat evaporation, decrease their physiological capabilities and their ability to work in hot and wet environment. The instrumented thermal and sweating manikin is fitted to simulate human sweating characteristics. In addition to the measurement of vapour permeation, it also allows to quantity precisely the maximal sweat transfert of protective clothing. This measurement allows to underline the part of global insulation due to the wet exchange of the worn protective equipment. Different concepts of clothing are tested with the thermal and sweating instrumented manikin, in comparison with the sweat flow of the naked manikin skin butyl, battle dress, NBC protective suit charcoal foam and fabric, and different models of new generation permeable clothing. The test protocol allows to determine quickly the efficiency of sweat permeation through protective equipment. The sweat evaporation is strongly limited by the butyl suit, but in comparaison with naked manikin, NBC permeable protective clothing allow significant flow rate. This evaluation is a complementary and obligatory preliminary step before physiological test on human in laboratory and on the field.