Optimizing the protection against the physiological burden of CBRN clothing.

Soldiers can wear chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) protective clothing to be protected against warfare agents. The disadvantage of that clothing is that higher protection introduces higher physiological burden. Therefore an optimum between comfort and protection must be found. Models of all relevant processes were created to find this optimum. The airflow profile around a cylinder with clothing-representing a dressed human body part-was modelled. This flow profile was used for calculating the agent vapour breakthrough through the clothing and for calculating the deposition of agents onto the skin (as indicators for protection). The flow profile was also used for calculating the temperature profile around the body part and the relative humidity underneath and in the clothing (as representative for physiological burden). As a result a tool was created, which can be used to identify the optimum properties of CBRN protective clothing, depending on the intended mission of the soldiers.