Effects of Body Postures on Clothing Air Gap in a Protective Suit

Air gaps entrapped in a protective suit play an important role in heat transfer, and it is closely related to the wearer’s safety. The distribution and size of the air gaps depends on body motions. In this study 8 representative body motions (stretching, walking, crawling, crouching, twisting, climbing and reaching, moving weights, and lateral bending) of CBR excercise and 2~4 body postures per each motion were derived. After that, for one male participant, theses postures were scanned with a 3D body scanning technique. Scanning was performed for the nude and the dressed to measure the distribution and size of air gaps between the human body and clothing. As a result, the air gaps varied with the different postures. The results will be basic data to improve the protective performance of current protective suit.