Investigation on Thermal Insulation and Vapor Resistances of Stab-Resistance Body Armor Using Thermal Manikin Method

To improve the wearing comfort of body armor and decreasing human energy consumption, a thermal manikin was used to investigate the thermal insulations and vapor resistances of two stab-resistance body armors in a temperature and humidity individually controlled climate chamber. Thermal manikin was generally applied to evaluate the thermal insulation and vapor resistance in room temperatures based on the international standards. In this paper, the general thermal insulation model was revised by combining the thermocouple detection method and thermal manikin measurement method. The effects of air temperature and relative humidity of the climate chamber, and stab-resistance material on the thermal insulation and vapor resistance were studied. The results show that the thermal insulation increases with the air temperature decreasing; the vapor resistance increases with the air temperature increasing, and decreases with the chamber relative humidity increasing.