2007, Piran, Slovenia

Manikins
The coupled system was validated by comparison with results of semi-nude human subject
tests under conditions of ambient air temperature between 15.0°C to 37.5°C, relative humidity
of 31-40%, ambient air movement of 0.1m/s and activity level of 60W/m 2 . In addition, the
human simulator was used to re-simulate human results, where clothed subjects slept seven
hours in isolative mummy shaped sleeping bags at the ambient temperature of -25°C.
RESULTS
In all the cases of semi-nude subjects studied the single-sector thermophysiological human
simulator reached the body core temperature of the human subjects at quasi-steady state as
well as during the initial transient period of the test with average root-mean-square (rms)
deviation of 0.15°C compared to 0.20°C experimental standard deviation. The skin
temperatures during cold, cool, neutral, warm and hot exposures also showed good agreement
with those measured on human subjects with average rms deviations of 0.37°C compared to
0.40°C experimental standard deviation. .
In the exposures using sleeping bags, only the local skin temperatures on the chest, back,
finger and foot were available. Since the thermophysiological simulator predicts also local
skin temperatures, thus the local values were compared rather than the mean skin
temperatures. The local skin temperatures measured and predicted agreed within rms
deviations of 0.83°C as compared to experimental standard deviation of 0.63°C for the chest,
0.89°C as compared to experimental standard deviation of 0.94°C for the back and 2.40°C as
compared to experimental standard deviation of 3.41°C for the foot.
DISCUSSION
The single-sector thermophysiological human simulator proved to be applicable for a range of
cold to hot environmental conditions. It is capable of simulating the steady state as well as, to
some extent, various physiological transients, with respect to body temperatures and sweat
excretion. Therefore, this device of fairly simple and robust design though equipped with
‘thermophysiological intelligence’ will allow scientists and engineers to study and quantify
the protective properties of clothing systems for condition to which humans are exposed in
real life rather than for simplistic, steady state situations used in current standards. In addition
to the key thermophysiological parameters the new device also provides information on the
associated level of thermal comfort, health risk and survival conditions for tested scenarios.
Thus this advanced tool could enhance the following research areas:
assessment of health and thermal comfort of protective clothing, space overalls, sleeping
bags, surgical and post-surgical maintenance suits, etc.
design of advanced adaptive clothing systems,
design of indoor spaces and optimisation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems
for buildings, cars and other man-made indoor spaces,
evaluation of the outdoor climates and development of the universal thermal climate index
UTCI.
REFERENCES
Fan J, Chen YS (2002) Measurement of clothing thermal insulation and moisture vapour
resistance using a novel perspiring fabric thermal manikin. Meas Sci Technol 13: 1115-
1123
Fiala D, Lomas KJ, Stohrer M (1999) A computer model of human thermoregulation for a
wide range of environmental conditions: the passive system. J Appl Physiol 87: 1957-
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