The thermal resistance and evaporative resistance provided by fabrics, films, coatings, foams, and leathers, including multi-layer assemblies, is of considerable importance in determining their suitability for use in fabricating protective clothing systems.

The thermal interchange between people and their environment is, however, an extremely complicated subject that involves many factors in addition to the steady-state resistance values of fabrics, films, coatings, foams, and leathers, including multi-layer assemblies. Therefore, thermal resistance values and evaporative resistance values measured on a hot plate may or may not indicate relative merit of a particular material or system for a given clothing application. While a possible indicator of clothing performance, measurements produced by the testing of fabrics have no proven correlation to the performance of clothing systems worn by people. Clothing weight, drape, tightness of fit, and so forth, can minimize or even neutralize the apparent differences between fabrics or fabric assemblies measured by this test method.

The thermal resistance and evaporative resistance of clothing systems can be measured with a heated manikin in an environmental chamber in accordance with Test Methods F 1291 and F 2370.

1.1 This test method covers the measurement of the thermal resistance and the evaporative resistance, under steady-state conditions, of fabrics, films, coatings, foams, and leathers, including multi-layer assemblies, for use in clothing systems.

1.2 The range of this measurement technique for intrinsic thermal resistance is from 0.002 to 0.5 K·m²/W and for intrinsic evaporative resistance is from 0.0 to 1.0 kPa·m²/W.

1.3 The values in SI units shall be regarded as standard.

1.4 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to consult and establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.