Skip to main content

Comparison of fabric skins for the simulation of sweating on thermal manikins

International Journal of Biometeorology volume 61, pages 1519–1529 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Sweating is an important thermoregulatory process helping to dissipate heat and, thus, to prevent overheating of the human body. Simulations of human thermo-physiological responses in hot conditions or during exercising are helpful for assessing heat stress; however, realistic sweating simulation and evaporative cooling is needed. To this end, thermal manikins dressed with a tight fabric skin can be used, and the properties of this skin should help human-like sweat evaporation simulation. Four fabrics, i.e., cotton with elastane, polyester, polyamide with elastane, and a skin provided by a manikin manufacturer (Thermetrics) were compared in this study. The moisture management properties of the fabrics have been investigated in basic tests with regard to all phases of sweating relevant for simulating human thermo-physiological responses, namely, onset of sweating, fully developed sweating, and drying. The suitability of the fabrics for standard tests, such as clothing evaporative resistance measurements, was evaluated based on tests corresponding to the middle phase of sweating. Simulations with a head manikin coupled to a thermo-physiological model were performed to evaluate the overall performance of the skins. The results of the study showed that three out of four evaluated fabrics have adequate moisture management properties with regard to the simulation of sweating, which was confirmed in the coupled simulation with the head manikin. The presented tests are helpful for comparing the efficiency of different fabrics to simulate sweat-induced evaporative cooling on thermal manikins.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

References

  • Annaheim S, Wang L-c, Psikuta A, Morrissey MP, Camenzind MA, Rossi RM (2015) A new method to assess the influence of textiles properties on human thermophysiology. Part I: thermal resistance. International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology 27:272–282. doi:10.1108/IJCST-02-2014-0020

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ASTM (2015) ASTM F2370 standard test method for measuring the evaporative resistance of clothing using a sweating manikin. American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, PA

    Google Scholar 

  • Berglund LG (1971) A theoretical and experimental study of the thermoregulatory effects of salt accumulating on human skin during sweating. Dissertation, Kansas State University

  • Burke R, McGuffin R (2001) Development of an advanced thermal manikin for vehicle climate evaluation. In: Proceedings of 4th International Meeting on Thermal Manikins, 2001. pp 14–18

  • Burton AC (1944) An analysis of the physiological effects of clothing in hot environments. Report of Associate Committee on Aviation Medical Research C2754

  • de Gennes P-G, Brochard-Wyart F, Quéré D (2004) Capillarity and wetting phenomena: drops, bubbles, pearls, waves. Springer Science & Business Media

  • Fan J, Chen Y (2002) Measurement of clothing thermal insulation and moisture vapour resistance using a novel perspiring fabric thermal manikin. Meas Sci Technol 13:1115. doi:10.1088/0957-0233/13/7/320

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fiala D, Havenith G (2015) Modelling human heat transfer and temperature regulation. In: The mechanobiology and mechanophysiology of military-related injuries. Springer, 265–302

  • Foda E, Siren K (2012) A thermal manikin with human thermoregulatory control: Implementation and validation. Int J Biometeorol 56:959–971

  • Havenith G, Bröde P, den Hartog E, Kuklane K, Holmér I, Rossi RM, Richards M, Farnworth B, Wang X (2013) Evaporative cooling: effective latent heat of evaporation in relation to evaporation distance from the skin. J Appl Physiol 114:778–785. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01271.2012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Havenith G, Richards M, Wang X, Bröde P, Candas V, den Hartog E, Holmér I, Kuklane K, Meinander H, Nocker W (2008) Apparent latent heat of evaporation from clothing: attenuation and “heat pipe” effects. J Appl Physiol 104:142–149. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00612.2007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hu J, Li Y, Yeung K-W, Wong AS, Xu W (2005) Moisture management tester: a method to characterize fabric liquid moisture management properties. Text Res J 75:57–62. doi:10.1177/004051750507500111

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • ISO (1993) Textiles—physiological effects—measurement of thermal and water vapour resistance under steady-state conditions (sweating guarded hot plate test). International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland (ISO 11092:1993)

  • Kuklane K, Heidmets S, Johansson T (2006) Improving thermal comfort in an orthopaedic aid: better Boston brace for scoliosis patients. In: 6th International Thermal Manikin and Modeling Meeting (6I3M), 2006. Hong Kong Polytechnic University, pp 343–351

  • Lotens W, Van De Linde F, Havenith G (1995) Effects of condensation in clothing on heat transfer. Ergonomics 38:1114–1131

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu Y, Wang F, Peng H, Shi W, Song G (2016a) Effect of sweating set rate on clothing real evaporative resistance determined on a sweating thermal manikin in a so-called isothermal condition (T manikin = T a = T r). Int J Biometeorol 60:481–488. doi:10.1007/s00484-015-1029-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu Y, Wang F, Peng H (2016b) Effect of two sweating simulation methods on clothing evaporative resistance in a so-called isothermal condition. Int J Biometeorol 60:1041–1049. doi:10.1007/s00484-015-1095-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martínez N (2015) Multi-sector thermophysiological head simulator for headgear research. Dissertation, Universitat Politècnica de València

  • Martínez N, Psikuta A, Corberán JM, Annaheim S, Rossi RM (2017) Multi-sector thermophysiological head simulator for headgear research. Int J Biometeorol 61:273–285. doi:10.1007/s00484-016-1209-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martínez N, Psikuta A, Kuklane K et al (2016) Validation of the thermophysiological model by Fiala for prediction of local skin temperatures. Int J Biometeorol 60:1969–1982. doi:10.1007/s00484-016-1184-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meinander H (1997) Experience with a sweating thermal manikin—ready for standard use? In: Proceedings of a European seminar on thermal manikin testing. National Institute for Working Life, Stockholm, Sweden, 1997. pp 38–42

  • Psikuta A, Fiala D, Laschewski G, Jendritzky G, Richards M, Błażejczyk K, Mekjavič I, Rintamäki H, de Dear R, Havenith G (2012) Validation of the Fiala multi-node thermophysiological model for UTCI application. Int J Biometeorol 56:443–460. doi:10.1007/s00484-011-0450-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Psikuta A, Kuklane K, Bogdan A, Havenith G, Annaheim S, Rossi RM (2016) Opportunities and constraints of presently used thermal manikins for thermo-physiological simulation of the human body. Int J Biometeorol 60:435–446

  • Psikuta A, Richards M, Fiala D (2008) Single-sector thermophysiological human simulator. Physiol Meas 29:181–192. doi:10.1088/0967-3334/29/2/002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Psikuta A, Wang L-C, Rossi RM (2013) Prediction of the physiological response of humans wearing protective clothing using a thermophysiological human simulator. J Occup Environ Hyg 10:222–232. doi:10.1080/15459624.2013.766562

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Psikuta A, Hepokoski M, Burke R, Schwenn T, Rossi R (2014) A methodology for the validation of thermophysiology models and adaptive manikins. 10th International Meeting on Thermal Manikin and Modelling (10i3m). Tampere, Finland

  • Richards M, Mattle N (2001) Development of a sweating agile thermal manikin (SAM). In: Proceedings of the 4th International Meeting on Thermal Manikins, 2001

  • Rugh JP, Farrington RB, Bharathan D, Vlahinos A, Burke R, Huizenga C, Zhang H (2004) Predicting human thermal comfort in a transient nonuniform thermal environment. Eur J Appl Physiol 92:721–727

  • Ueno S, S-i S (2012) Correction of the evaporative resistance of clothing by the temperature of skin fabric on a sweating and walking thermal manikin. Text Res J 82:1143–1156. doi:10.1177/0040517511427966

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang F-M, Gao C-S, Kuklane K, Holmér I (2009) A study on evaporative resistances of two skins designed for thermal manikin Tore under different environmental conditions. Journal of Fiber Bioengineering and Informatics 1:301–306. doi:10.3993/jfbi03200908

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang F-M, Kuklane K, Gao C-S, Holmér I, Havenith G (2010a) Development and validation of an empirical equation to predict wet fabric skin surface temperature of thermal manikins. Journal of Fiber Bioengineering and Informatics 3:9–15. doi:10.3993/jfbi06201002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang F, Gao C, Kuklane K, Holmér I (2011) Determination of clothing evaporative resistance on a sweating thermal manikin in an isothermal condition: heat loss method or mass loss method? Ann Occup Hyg 55:775–783. doi:10.1093/annhyg/mer034

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang F, Kuklane K, Gao C, Holmer I (2012) Effect of temperature difference between manikin and wet fabric skin surfaces on clothing evaporative resistance: how much error is there? Int J Biometeorol 56:177–182. doi:10.1007/s00484-011-0411-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang F, Kuklane K, Gao C, Holmér I (2010b) Development and validity of a universal empirical equation to predict skin surface temperature on thermal manikins. J Therm Biol 35:197–203. doi:10.1016/j.jtherbio.2010.03.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang L, Lu M, Dai X (2015) A study on material of manikin skin for measuring clothing evaporative resistance. Journal of Fiber Bioengineering and Informatics 8:221–228. doi:10.3993/jfbim00088

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang F, Shi W, Lu Y, Song G, Rossi RM (2016) Effects of moisture content and clothing fit on clothing apparent ‘wet’ thermal insulation: a thermal manikin study. Text Res J 86:57–63. doi:10.1177/0040517515580527

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yanilmaz M, Kalaoğlu F (2012) Investigation of wicking, wetting and drying properties of acrylic knitted fabrics. Text Res J 82(8):820–831. doi:10.1177/0040517511435851

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yao B-G, Li Y, Hu J-y, Y-l K, K-w Y (2006) An improved test method for characterizing the dynamic liquid moisture transfer in porous polymeric materials. Polym Test 25:677–689. doi:10.1016/j.polymertesting.2006.03.014

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerli T, Weder MS (1997) Protection and comfort—a sweating torso for the simultaneous measurement of protective and comfort properties of PPE. In: Performance of protective clothing: Sixth Volume, 1997. ASTM International, pp 271–280

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to Natividad Martínez for all her kind help with the measurements on the head manikin and Emel Mert for the discussions about fabrics properties. We thank Thermetrics for providing samples of their fabric for the measurements.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Air-Conditioning and Heating Department, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

    Barbara Koelblen & Anna Bogdan

  2. Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014, St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Barbara Koelblen, Agnes Psikuta, Simon Annaheim & René M. Rossi

Authors
  1. Barbara Koelblen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Agnes Psikuta
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Anna Bogdan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Simon Annaheim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. René M. Rossi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Agnes Psikuta.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Koelblen, B., Psikuta, A., Bogdan, A. et al. Comparison of fabric skins for the simulation of sweating on thermal manikins. Int J Biometeorol 61, 1519–1529 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-017-1331-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-017-1331-3

Keywords

  • Fabric skin
  • Thermal manikin
  • Thermo-physiological simulator
  • Sweating simulation
  • Evaporative resistance