Moisture Transport and Absorption in Multilayer Protective Clothing Fabrics

The distribution of moisture in state-of-the-art firefighter protective clothing was analyzed on a sweating torso. After one hour of sweating, only 35 % of moisture evaporated from the layers, but after another hour of drying out, only about 10 % of the supplied moisture remained in the clothing. Over 75 % of this moisture accumulated in the innermost three layers of the clothing system consisting of five and six layers, respectively. The interaction of the moisture transport properties of the different layers proved to be very important for the distribution of moisture. In particular, the neighboring layer of the underwear turned out to be dominant for the moisture distribution. Depending on its hygroscopic properties, it could even act as a water barrier.