Developing an Improved Fire Shelter
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Department
Engineering
Abstract
Our project will develop a safer fire shelter for wildland firefighters. In 2013, thirteen “hot shot” wildlands firefighters lost their lives because of insufficient fire shelter design. Factors found to attribute to firefighter casualty were slow deployment time, insufficient convective heat protection (fire winds) and soft materials failures (e.g. adhesives). In response, we propose a new composite layering panel system utilizing calormorphic materials to improve convective heat transfer resistance and reduce material failures. Our testing will include the various shelter design attributes including stitching, materials, structure, and lamination on the resulting survivability rating of the designs. This project can save firefighters' lives, generate significant publicity for USM, and is expected to result in a US patent filing once the data is collected.
Developing an Improved Fire Shelter
Our project will develop a safer fire shelter for wildland firefighters. In 2013, thirteen “hot shot” wildlands firefighters lost their lives because of insufficient fire shelter design. Factors found to attribute to firefighter casualty were slow deployment time, insufficient convective heat protection (fire winds) and soft materials failures (e.g. adhesives). In response, we propose a new composite layering panel system utilizing calormorphic materials to improve convective heat transfer resistance and reduce material failures. Our testing will include the various shelter design attributes including stitching, materials, structure, and lamination on the resulting survivability rating of the designs. This project can save firefighters' lives, generate significant publicity for USM, and is expected to result in a US patent filing once the data is collected.
