Increasing concern about energy consumption and the simultaneous need for an acceptable thermal environment makes it necessary to estimate in advance what effect different thermal factors will have on the occupants. Temperature measurements alone do not account for all climate effects on the human body and especially not for local effects of convection and radiation. People as well as thermal manikins can detect heat loss changes on local body parts. This fact makes it appropriate to develop measurement methods and computer models with the corresponding working principles and levels of resolution. One purpose of this thesis is to link together results from these various investigation techniques with the aim of assessing different effects of the thermal climate on people. The results can be used to facilitate detailed evaluations of thermal influences both in indoor environments in buildings and in different types of vehicles. This thesis presents a comprehensive and detailed description of the theories and methods behind full-scale measurements with thermal manikins. This is done with new, extended definitions of the concept of equivalent temperature, and new theories describing equivalent temperature as a vector-valued function. One specific advantage is that the locally measured or simulated results are presented with newly developed "comfort zone diagrams". These diagrams provide new ways of taking into consideration both seat zone qualities as well as the influence of different clothing types on the climate assessment with "clothing-independent" comfort zone diagrams.Today, different types of computer programs such as CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) are used for product development, simulation and testing of, for instance, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) systems, particularly in the building and vehicle industry. Three different climate evaluation methods are used and compared in this thesis: human subjective measurements, manikin measurements and computer modelling. A detailed description is presented of how developed simulation methods can be used to evaluate the influence of thermal climate in existing and planned environments. In different climate situations subjective human experiences are compared to heat loss measurements and simulations with thermal manikins. The calculation relationships developed in this research agree well with full-scale measurements and subject experiments in different thermal environments. The use of temperature and flow field data from CFD calculations as input produces acceptable results, especially in relatively homogeneous environments. In more heterogeneous environments the deviations are slightly larger. Possible reasons for this are presented along with suggestions for continued research, new relationships and computer codes.Key-words: equivalent temperature, subject, thermal manikin, mannequin, thermal climate assessment, heat loss, office environment, cabin climate, ventilated seat, computer model, CFD, clothi...
The aim of the study was to examine the effects of wearing an ice-vest (ca 1 kg) on physiological and subjective responses in fire fighters. The experiments were carried out on a treadmill in a hot-dry environment. The physical cooling effect of the ice-vest was measured with a thermal manikin. The ice-vest effectively reduced skin temperatures under the vest. On average, heart rate was 10 beats/min lower, the amount of sweating was reduced by 13%, and subjective sensations of effort and warmth were lower during work with the ice-vest compared to work without it. Thermal manikin tests indicated that the useful energy available from the vest for body cooling was rather high (58%). In conclusion, the ice-vest reduces physiological and subjective strain responses during heavy work in the heat, and may promote efficient work time by 10%.
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