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Effect of environmental parameters on heat transfer characteristics and thermal sensation of human body with step change of temperature

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Abstract

Step change of thermal environment is often encountered in people’s daily life. The purpose of this paper is to explore effects of temperature difference, wind speed and clothing thermal resistance on skin temperature, heat transfer characteristics and thermal comfort with step change of ambient temperature, and to find out relationship between human physiological parameters and subjective thermal evaluation. Thermal response experiment of 30 subjects under different temperature difference, wind speed and clothing thermal resistance were carried out in an artificial climate chamber to simulate step change of neutral—slightly hot/hot- neutral temperature. The results show that the larger the abrupt temperature difference, the larger the mean skin temperature increment, and the longer the time needs to reach stability. Thermal sensation appears “overshoot phenomenon” during step change, which is caused by step change of heat transfer between human body and environment. The increase of wind speed results in a decrease in skin temperature and thermal sensation after step change, but the effect was not significant. The greater the sudden temperature difference, the less significant the effect of wind speed. The increase of clothing thermal resistance results in a significant increase in skin temperature and thermal sensation after step change and the effect is significant. The greater the sudden temperature difference, the more significant the effect of clothing thermal resistance. Knothe function can quantify the regulation characteristics of mean skin temperature with time during temperature step change. There is a good linear correlation between thermal sensation and heat transfer on the skin surface, so heat transfer can be used to predict thermal sensation under step change condition. The regression coefficients are affected by wind speed and clothing thermal resistance.

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Abbreviations

A:

Total area of body m2

Ar :

Radiation area of body m2

Asi :

Local skin area m2

Cres :

Convective heat loss from respiration W/m2

Cv :

Convective heat rate W/m2

Edif :

Evaporative heat loss of moisture diffused through skin W/m2

Emax :

Maximum evaporation rate from skin W/m2

Eres :

Evaporative heat loss from respiration W/m2

Esk :

Total evaporative heat loss from skin W/m2

Esw :

Evaporative heat loss by sweat W/m2

fcl :

Clothing area factor /

hc :

Convective heat transfer coefficient W/(m2·K)

hfg :

Latent heat of water vaporization kJ/kg

hr :

Linear radiative heat transfer coefficient W/(m2·K)

h’:

Overall sensible heat transfer coefficient W/(m2·K)

Icl :

Clothing insulation clo

im :

Total vapor permeation efficiency /

LR:

Ewis Ratio K/kPa

M:

Metabolic heat production ratemet (W/m2)

msw :

Sweat rate g/ (m2/h)

Pa :

Water vapor pressure in ambient air kPa

Psk,s :

Saturated water vapor pressure on the skin surface kPa

Q:

Total heat transfer of human body W/m2

R:

Radiant heat rate W/m2

rev :

Evaporation efficient of sweat/

ta :

Mean air temperature °C

tadp :

Adaptive temperature °C

tcl :

Clothing surface temperature °C

tr :

Mean radiant temperature °C

ts :

Mean skin temperature °C

tsi :

Local skin temperature °C

ts,0 :

Neutral mean skin temperature °C

W:

Rate of mechanical work accomplished W/m2

W:

Skin wettedness of whole body /

wsw :

Skin wettedness caused by sweat /

σ:

Boltzmann constant W/(m2·K4)

ε:

Body emissitivity /

T:

Time s

φ:

Dependent variable

ASHRAE:

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers

ISO:

International Organization for Standardization

P:

Significance Level—P

PMV:

Predicted Mean Vote

R2:

Decisive Factor—R-Square

SD:

Standard Deviation

SPSS:

Statistical Product and Service Solutions

TSV:

Overall Thermal Sensation

t-test:

Student’s t test

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Acknowledgements

This research is supported by both the Capacity Building Plan for some Non-military Universities and Colleges of Shanghai Scientific Committee (Grant number 16060502600) and the Open Project of Shanghai Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow and Heat Transfer in Power Engineering.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy and Power Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 20093, China

    Liangkui Qi, Qingqing Wu, Liang Zhang & Jianhua Liu

  2. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow and Heat Transfer in Power Engineering, Shanghai, 200093, China

    Jianhua Liu

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  1. Liangkui Qi
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  2. Qingqing Wu
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  4. Jianhua Liu
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Correspondence to Jianhua Liu.

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Qi, L., Wu, Q., Zhang, L. et al. Effect of environmental parameters on heat transfer characteristics and thermal sensation of human body with step change of temperature. Heat Mass Transfer 58, 873–885 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-021-03151-5

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