Experimental Study on Skin Temperature and Thermal Comfort of the Human Body in a Recumbent Posture under Uniform Thermal Environments

Abstract

Experiments are conducted on human subjects to study the overall and the local thermal sensation and thermal comfort as well as the skin temperature distribution of the body in a recumbent posture under different environmental temperatures (21, 24, 26, and 29°C). Local skin temperatures are measured and 14 methods for the mean skin temperature overall are investigated. Statistical analysis showed that the Burton (3 points) method wiu obtain similar results for mean skin temperature compared with the other methods, e.g., Colin/Houdas (10 points), Hardy/DuBois (12 points), Stolwijk/Hardy (unweighted 10 points), and Mitchell/ Wyndham (unweighted 15 points), and is employed in this study due to its simplicity and convenience. Meanwhile, the relationship between skin temperature and thermal comfort and sensation is investigated and overall/local thermal sensation models based on the skin temperature are established according to the experimental data in this study.