Hygro-thermo-chemical transfer analysis of clothing microclimate using three-dimensional digital clothing model and computer-simulated person

Abstract

Several studies regarding indoor environmental quality assessments based on computational human models have been reported. Recently, various computer-simulated persons for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations that reproduce a detailed human body geometry has been developed. However, clothing is usually treated with simplification as a resistance to heat/contaminant transfer, and detailed hygro-thermo-chemical transfer phenomena in clothing-centred area with complex geometry have not been fully discussed. It is also important to investigate the ventilation characteristics inside the air gap between the clothing and the human body. Thus, this study aimed to develop an analytical method of three-dimensional clothing model that can be applied to a computer-simulated person (CSP) for indoor computational fluid dynamics analysis. To identify the impact of the clothing model on the human and the microclimate around the body, hygro-thermo-chemical transfer analyses were conducted in a virtual simplified model room. By reproducing the detailed clothing geometry, ventilation inside the air gap and clothing-centred hygro-thermo-chemical transfer characteristics were quantitatively investigated. The data analysis technique established in this study could contribute to preparing foundational data for simplification of numerical modelling of clothing.