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The UTCI-clothing model

International Journal of Biometeorology volume 56, pages 461–470 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

The Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) was conceived as a thermal index covering the whole climate range from heat to cold. This would be impossible without considering clothing as the interface between the person (here, the physiological model of thermoregulation) and the environment. It was decided to develop a clothing model for this application in which the following three factors were considered: (1) typical dressing behaviour in different temperatures, as observed in the field, resulting in a model of the distribution of clothing over the different body segments in relation to the ambient temperature, (2) the changes in clothing insulation and vapour resistance caused by wind and body movement, and (3) the change in wind speed in relation to the height above ground. The outcome was a clothing model that defines in detail the effective clothing insulation and vapour resistance for each of the thermo-physiological model’s body segments over a wide range of climatic conditions. This paper details this model’s conception and documents its definitions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Ergonomics Research Centre, Loughborough Design School, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK

    George Havenith

  2. Ergonsim, Holderbuschweg 47, 70563, Stuttgart, Germany

    Dusan Fiala

  3. Institute of Building Technologies, IBBTE, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Dusan Fiala

  4. Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, PAN, Warsaw, Poland

    Krzysztof Błazejczyk

  5. Humanikin GmbH, St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Mark Richards

  6. Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors (IfADo), Dortmund, Germany

    Peter Bröde

  7. Lund Technical University, Lund, Sweden

    Ingvar Holmér

  8. Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Oulu, Finland

    Hannu Rintamaki

  9. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Yael Benshabat

  10. Meteorologisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Gerd Jendritzky

Authors
  1. George Havenith
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  2. Dusan Fiala
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  3. Krzysztof Błazejczyk
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  4. Mark Richards
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  5. Peter Bröde
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  6. Ingvar Holmér
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  7. Hannu Rintamaki
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  8. Yael Benshabat
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  9. Gerd Jendritzky
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Correspondence to George Havenith.

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Havenith, G., Fiala, D., Błazejczyk, K. et al. The UTCI-clothing model. Int J Biometeorol 56, 461–470 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-011-0451-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-011-0451-4

Keywords

  • Clothing insulation
  • Cold
  • Heat
  • Wind
  • Vapour resistance