Intelligent Textiles for Personal Protection and Safety Edited by Sundaresan Jayaraman, Paul Kiekens and Ana Marija Grancaric

Contents

Preface
Terrorism has become an integral part of everyday life in recent years and has dramatically affected the quality of life for individuals in society. Technology is the key to combating terrorism and protecting ordinary citizens, first responders and soldiers, among others, from danger. The area of intelligent or smart textiles is a rather new but rapidly emerging discipline with a high potential for payoff in the fight against terrorism.

This Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) was organized to fill the critical need to bring together the leading experts in the field to make an in-depth assessment of existing knowledge in the area of intelligent (smart) textiles for personal protection and safety, and to identify directions for future research. An important outcome or “deliverable” of the Workshop has been the “Research Roadmap” for the future in keeping with NATO’s goals for the ARW program. This first-of-its-kind ARW in this field also provided a forum for young scientists and engineers to interact closely with the invited experts and participate in developing the Research Roadmap that is expected to advance this emerging discipline through collaborative research between NATO and Partner countries.

This book contains the papers presented by the Invited Speakers at the ARW. Each chapter in the book provides an in-depth assessment of one particular facet of this emerging discipline. The chapters build on each other further reflecting the integrated and interdisciplinary theme underlying the ARW.

As Co-Directors, we would like to express our sincere thanks and appreciation to all who contributed to the success of the ARW: to NATO for the generous grant; to the fellow members of the Organizing Committee, viz., Professor Danilo De Rossi of the University of Pisa, Italy, Professor Lieva Van Langenhove of Ghent University, Belgium, and Ms. Sungmee Park of the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA; to Dr. Carla Hertleer of Ghent University, Belgium, for her help during the ARW planning stage; to Ms. Judith Kenis, Ghent University, Belgium, for coordinating the logistics that resulted in a productive and enjoyable ARW; to the Invited Speakers, Participants and Discussion Leaders for providing the stimulating intellectual content of the ARW; again to Ms. Sungmee Park for her extensive help in the preparation of this book for publication; and finally, to the IOS Press staff for their assistance in the timely production of the book.

Sundaresan Jayaraman
Paul Kiekens
Ana Marija Grancaric

Advanced Research Workshop on Intelligent Textiles for Personal Protection and Safety
Paul KIEKENS
Ghent University, Belgium

Together with my co-directors Prof. Ana Marija Grancaric from the University of Zagreb and Prof. Sundaresan Jayaraman from Georgia Institute of Technology I would like to welcome you at this unique location for attending the Advanced Research Workshop that is organized with the support of NATO.

The WTC attacks in New York on 11 September 2001; the train explosions in Madrid on 11 March 2004, the massacre at the public transport in London on 7 July 2005; these major terrorist assaults are unfortunately engraved in our memories and emphasize the importance and necessity of the fight against terrorism. Thousands of people lost their lives during these assaults, among which mainly civilians but also a great number of fire fighters. Furthermore these attacks put the work of people as fire fighters and first responders in the picture and intensify the extreme conditions under which these people are working.

Governments need to deal with finding political solutions to prevent more terrorist attacks, while scientists can contribute to the defence from a technological point of view. Applying intelligent textiles in this battle is an obvious choice. Clothing is a person’s second skin, covering great parts of our body on the one side and having a large surface area in contact with the environment on the other hand. Therefore clothing is most suitable as interface between environment and human body, resulting in the ideal tool to enhance personal protection and provide occupational safety. This idea as such of course is not new; clothing always had a protecting function among other things. All clothing is protective to some extent, while the degree of protection against specific hazards varies according to the area of application. Personal protective equipment (PPE) includes more than just the garments; face masks, gloves, shoes, etc. all take part of the equipment. The nature of the workplace hazards resulted in grouping PPE in categories such as chemical, thermal, mechanical, nuclear and biological. Each category uses its own range of high performance materials with very specific superb properties. Over the years, growing concern regarding health and safety of workers in various sectors of the industry, has led to intensive research and development in the area of personal protective equipment. The quality of PPE has improved as a result of the introduction of specialty fibres, on-going research on polymers, coatings and fabrication techniques. Some major breakthroughs will be mentioned.