The influence of outdoor thermal environment on young Japanese females.

The influence of short wave solar radiation appears to be strong outdoors in summer, and the influence of airflow appears to be strong outdoors in winter. The purpose of this paper was to clarify the influence of the outdoor environment on young Japanese females. This research shows the relationship between the physiological and psychological responses of humans and the enhanced conduction-corrected modified effective temperature (ETFe). Subjective experiments were conducted in an outdoor environment. Subjects were exposed to the thermal environment in a standing posture. Air temperature, humidity, air velocity, short wave solar radiation, long wave radiation, ground surface temperature, sky factor, and the green solid angle were measured. The temperatures of skin exposed to the atmosphere and in contact with the ground were measured. Thermal sensation and thermal comfort were measured by means of rating the whole-body thermal sensation (cold-hot) and the whole body thermal comfort (comfortable-uncomfortable) on a linear scale. Linear rating scales are given for the hot (100) and cold (0), and comfortable (100) and uncomfortable (0) directions only. Arbitrary values of 0 and 100 were assigned to each endpoint, the reported values read in, and the entire length converted into a numerical value with an arbitrary scale of 100 to give a linear rating scale. The ETFe considered to report a neither hot nor cold, thermally neutral sensation of 50 was 35.9 °C, with 32.3 °C and 42.9 °C, respectively, corresponding to the low and high temperature ends of the ETFe considered to report a neither comfortable nor uncomfortable comfort value of 50. The mean skin temperature considered to report a neither hot nor cold, thermally neutral sensation of 50 was 33.3 °C, with 31.0 °C and 34.3 °C, respectively, corresponding to the low and high temperature ends of the mean skin temperature considered to report a neither comfortable nor uncomfortable comfort value of 50. The acceptability raised the mean skin temperature even for thermal environment conditions in which ETFe was high.

Effect of the environmental stimuli upon the human body in winter outdoor thermal environment.

In order to manage the outdoor thermal environment with regard to human health and the environmental impact of waste heat, quantitative evaluations are indispensable. It is necessary to use a thermal environment evaluation index. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between the psychological thermal responses of the human body and winter outdoor thermal environment variables. Subjective experiments were conducted in the winter outdoor environment. Environmental factors and human psychological responses were measured. The relationship between the psychological thermal responses of the human body and the outdoor thermal environment index ETFe (enhanced conduction-corrected modified effective temperature) in winter was shown. The variables which influence the thermal sensation vote of the human body are air temperature, long-wave thermal radiation and short-wave solar radiation. The variables that influence the thermal comfort vote of the human body are air temperature, humidity, short-wave solar radiation, long-wave thermal radiation, and heat conduction. Short-wave solar radiation, and heat conduction are among the winter outdoor thermal environment variables that affect psychological responses to heat. The use of thermal environment evaluation indices that comprise short-wave solar radiation and heat conduction in winter outdoor spaces is a valid approach.

Development of outdoor thermal index indicating universal and separate effects on human thermal comfort.

The purpose of this study is to propose a new outdoor thermal index that simultaneously indicates universal and separate effects. The value indicating universal effect in this index consists of the summation of air temperature and the effective temperature differences by air velocity, longwave radiation, solar radiation, and humidity. This paper describes the theoretical construction of this newly derived index to compare with previous indices. The calculations of the new index are demonstrated using the observed data in order to explicitly indicate the specific features of the new index.

Convective heat transfer area of the human body.

In order to clarify the heat transfer area involved in convective heat exchange for the human body, the total body surface area of six healthy subjects was measured, and the non-convective heat transfer area and floor and chair contact areas for the following nine common body positions were measured: standing, sitting on a chair, sitting in the seiza position, sitting cross-legged, sitting sideways, sitting with both knees erect, sitting with a leg out, and the lateral and supine positions. The main non-convective heat transfer areas were: the armpits (contact between the upper arm and trunk regions), contact between the two legs, contacts between the fingers and toes, and contact between the hands and the body surface. Also, when sitting on the floor with some degree of leg contact (sitting in the seiza position, cross-legged, or sideways), there was a large non-convective heat transfer area on the thighs and legs. Even when standing or sitting in a chair, about 6-8% of the body surface did not transfer heat by convection. The results showed that the effective thermal convective area factor for the naked whole body in the standing position was 0.942. While sitting in a chair this factor was 0.860, while sitting in a chair but excluding the chair contact area it was 0.918, when sitting in the seiza position 0.818, when sitting cross-legged 0.843, in the sideways sitting position 0.855, when sitting with both knees erect 0.887, in the leg-out sitting position 0.906, while in the lateral position it was 0.877 and the supine position 0.844. For all body positions, the effective thermal convective area factor was greater than the effective thermal radiation area factor, but smaller than the total body surface area.