Heated, perspiring manikin headform for the measurement of headgear ventilation characteristics

Abstract

Details of a heated manikin headform with computer-controlled perspiration are presented. The heat exchange properties of the headform with and without perspiration are compared to those of human beings and other manikins, showing quite good agreement, and are then applied to measure the ventilation characteristics of motorcycle and bicycle helmets. Subtle differences between two helmets are observed in each case, illustrating the sensitivity of the headform.

Thermal Perception of Ventilation Changes in Full-Face Motorcycle Helmets: Subject and Manikin Study

“…Recent research on potential wearer impairment focused on noise levels (Iho et al, 1980;Ross, 1989;McCombe et al, 1994;Młyński et al, 2009), vision (Lai and Huang, *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. ; e-mail: rene.rossi@empa.ch 2008), general physiological strain (D'Artibale et al, 2008), microclimate CO 2 and O 2 levels (Iho et al, 1980;Brühwiler et al, 2005), and helmet thermal properties (Brühwiler, 2003;Buyan et al, 2006;Bogerd and Brühwiler, 2008;Pinnoji et al, 2008;Bogerd and Brühwiler, 2009). Unfavorable temperature perception and/or thermal discomfort are frequently given arguments for not wearing a motorcycle helmet (Patel and Mohan, 1993;Skalkidou et al, 1999;Li et al, 2008b), which is supported by field observations (Gkritza, 2009).…”

“…This has motivated a number of studies on characterizing and optimizing thermal properties of such headgear (Fonseca, 1974;Reischl, 1986;Spaul et al, 1987;Abeysekera et al, 1991;Liu and Holmer, 1995;Liu, 1997;Liu et al, 1999;Hsu et al, 2000;Holland et al, 2002;Brühwiler, 2003;De Bruyne et al, 2008). As a result, headgear improvement concepts were proposed to improve temperature perception and thermal comfort (Abeysekera and Shahnavaz, 1988;Holland et al, 2002).…”

A Thermal Test System for Helmet Cooling Studies

“…A headform constructed by Brühwiler [2] from a polyester fashion mannequin is split into three independently heated areas, two of which are monitored for investigations. Each area is maintained at a constant temperature measured by resistance wires on the head surface.…”

Infrared Thermography in Sports Activity

“…Recently, De Bruyne et al (2010) carried out a search thataims at quantifying transient spatial gradients in sweat production on a human head while cycling. The results of their research aims to enhance physiological insight of the sweating process and it can also help to develop sweating thermal manikins (Hsu et al, 2000;Davis et al 2001;Bruhwiler et al 2003;Bruhwiler et al, 2004) that behave more realistically to thermal changes (Bruhwiler et al, 2006;Buyan et al, 2006;Bogerd et al, 2008;Brühwiler et al, 2009). Latent heat loss of the human head has been quantified in many experiments.…”