Using Thermal Effusivity to Predict Burn Hazard from the Result of Testing Using Human Skin Simulant

Many workers face occupational burn hazards – perhaps none more so than firefighters. Firefighters’ protective equipment (PPE) is intended to protect them from burns due to thermal radiation and other thermal hazards, using simulated skin in empirical tests. But PPE are complicated systems – and skin is even more complex. How well do test results from simulated skin transfer to a real-world situation, and how can you convert a test with simulated skin to a real-world burn hazard metric?