TY - JOUR
T1 - Measurements and predictions of the skin temperature of human subjects on outdoor environment
AU - Lai, Dayi
AU - Zhou, Xiaojie
AU - Chen, Qingyan
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was partially supported by the national key R&D program from the Ministry of Science and Technology, China, on “Green Buildings and Building Industrialization” through Grant No. 2016YFC0700500 and the China Scholarship Council (CSC).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2017/9/15
Y1 - 2017/9/15
N2 - Thermal comfort in outdoor spaces is strongly associated with the quality of social life in an urban community. This study investigated dynamic outdoor thermal comfort under cold, mild, and hot climatic conditions with air temperature ranging from −0.1 to 35.0 °C. Using a total of 26 human subjects in 94 tests under these climatic conditions, this study measured outdoor thermal environmental parameters, monitored subjects’ skin temperature, and recorded subjects’ thermal sensation. The study found that fluctuations in wind speed and solar radiation led to changes in convective and radiative thermal loads on the human subjects. Their skin temperature and thermal sensation changed accordingly. In the cold conditions, the skin temperature of the trunk was stable at around 34 °C, while the skin temperature of the face decreased to 19 °C. This investigation developed a human heat transfer model that considers outdoor radiative heat exchange and transient heat transfer in clothing. The mean skin temperatures predicted by the model agree reasonably well with the measured data. However, the discrepancy between the predicted and measured local skin temperature under extremely cold conditions can be as large as 6 K.
AB - Thermal comfort in outdoor spaces is strongly associated with the quality of social life in an urban community. This study investigated dynamic outdoor thermal comfort under cold, mild, and hot climatic conditions with air temperature ranging from −0.1 to 35.0 °C. Using a total of 26 human subjects in 94 tests under these climatic conditions, this study measured outdoor thermal environmental parameters, monitored subjects’ skin temperature, and recorded subjects’ thermal sensation. The study found that fluctuations in wind speed and solar radiation led to changes in convective and radiative thermal loads on the human subjects. Their skin temperature and thermal sensation changed accordingly. In the cold conditions, the skin temperature of the trunk was stable at around 34 °C, while the skin temperature of the face decreased to 19 °C. This investigation developed a human heat transfer model that considers outdoor radiative heat exchange and transient heat transfer in clothing. The mean skin temperatures predicted by the model agree reasonably well with the measured data. However, the discrepancy between the predicted and measured local skin temperature under extremely cold conditions can be as large as 6 K.
KW - Dynamic thermal environment
KW - Heat transfer model
KW - Outdoor spaces
KW - Thermal comfort
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85024474546&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.07.009
DO - 10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.07.009
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85024474546
SN - 0378-7788
VL - 151
SP - 476
EP - 486
JO - Energy and Buildings
JF - Energy and Buildings
ER -