A Coupling System for Prediction of Physiological Parameters in an Immersed Condition

Abstract

This study’s major aim is to use a coupling system to predict the physiological parameters of a person wearing a life preserver in an immersion condition. The coupling system is made up of a thermal manikin that can simulate the human body’s thermoregulatory response in an immersion environment, coupled to a multi-segment human thermal model. By comparing the results with those of the subjects, the coupled system’s predictions were shown to be accurate. The core temperature, skin temperature, and heat flow density of ten healthy men were all continuously measured while they wore life preservers and were exposed to the same temperature of air and water. The coupling system demonstrated accurate predictions of heat production and core temperature compared to real measures, with RMSD of 18.91 W and 0.12 °C, respectively. The majority of the predicted values for mean skin temperature were within SD of the measured values, and the paired sample t-test with a significance level of 0.05 showed good agreement with a maximum temperature difference of 1 °C. Also, the coupling system predicted results and the measured results showed some good accuracy for predicting local skin temperatures.