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New instruments for measuring thermal comfort

Korsgaard, V.; Madsen, T. Lund

Publication date:
1973

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Citation (APA):
Korsgaard, V., & Madsen, T. L. (1973). New instruments for measuring thermal comfort. Technical University of
Denmark, Department of Civil Engineering.

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 L I L Y 1 I l I U I I , " I Y I Y L . I V I V I X

MEASURING THERMAL COMFORT

V. KORSGAARD and T. LUND MADSEN

Tlze Technicnl Uniuersit]>of Derznrnrk
Lyngby (Dentnnrlc)

Nouveaux instruments de mesure du confort thermique

R ~ S U :MO n~ snit qrre /e degre' rl'itrconfort tlzernziqzie ressentipnr une persontle est lid dtroite-
inent 2 In charge tkernrique que l'enuironneizzent inzpose ri cette personne. Dons ce rapport, on
difinit In cliorge tlzerrnique coizzrzre Irr &ffe'rerzce eritre Ie n?itnbolisrz~erCel et le 17iitnbolisrz?e
correspotrdont ri I'actiuird q~reIn personne doit occornplir pour. se trouuer ?I I'Ptnt de confort
tkerrnique dons I'enoironnenzetzt re'el. Ce dernier nii?tobolisrne peut Ztre niesurd conzine I'ctpport
d'e'nergie a in corps de tzzeslire qni doit corrseruer sn tenipe'rnture sriperjicielle a In ni@rzieooleur
qrre In tenipirciture snperjicielle nroyenne d'une persotzne a l'dtnt de confort tlzernriqrre nuec lrne
actiuitd et des uitenients rCels.
Dons 1411 enuironnenzent tlzer~niquenon rrrrifornie le confort tlzernzique dipend o~issirkrrzs line
certnine niesure, des icnrts de In tenzpdrnture rle 10 penn pour les diuerses pnrties ~ L corps I nuec
Ies tenipCrotures con.esporr~lnnt nri cotfort tlieriziique.
Dons ce rapport on ddcrit deux instninzents : r/n nzannequin tkernliqzfe et wz conlptelir de
confort thernrique qlii ont PtC rzris nu point or/ Inboratoire rle I'A. srrionrrt Ies principes e x ~ ~ o s d s
ci-dessus.

It is a well-known fact that the deep body temperature is kept alrnost constant a t
approx. 37"C, even when the thermal variables of the environ~nentvary within wide
limits. But within these wide linlits there is only a narrow interval or zone which will

Fig. l - Physical thermoregulation.

LABOWTBRIm FOR VAWIMEISOLERINQ

EANMARIG TEKNISKE HWlSKOLE
-
activity and clothing. The body temperature is kept constant by means of the body's
thernlal effector mechanisms: vasodilation and vasoconstriction, sweat secretion and
shivering (fig. 1).
The comfort zone can be referred to one of the following thermal characteristics:
1. The operative temperature of the environment ;
2. The mean surface temperature of the clothed body;
3. The mean skin temperature;
4. The deep body temperature.
While changes in the thernlal environment will lnainly be felt by the thernlal recep-
tors of the skin, the general feeling of warmth will be related to the deep body tempera-
ture. If we consider the human therlnoregulatory system as a simple proportional
control systenl (fig. 2) we could claim that under steady-state conditions the degree of
thermal discomfort is proportional to the offset or load error of the thermostat, the
regulated quantity or controlled condition being the deep body teruperature.
offset = actual value+ set point.
The set point will increase with the activity level or metabolism, and it will follow a
diurnal variation.

r----------- d/sturbame
1 setpoinL j
"~.50rn... I
skli?
1
l l b~oor/f/ow
L --i
hypo t b l ~ m u s

Fig. 2 -The human thermoregulating system within the comfort zone considered as a
simple proportional control system.

This presents merely a phenomenological and engineering point of view and does
not pretend to cover physiological realities.
We shall now consider a person who is in thermal comfort at a certain activity
level, which nleans that the offset is zero. If we change his thermal environment we
change his thermal load. In the ternlinology of the control engineer this change is
termed disturbance. If the disturbance is kept constant it will cause a pernlanent offset,
the value of which will depend on the anlplification factor of the control loop. The
offset is given by the following expression:

AT, " AH
=-
l +a
From the equation it would be possible to find the amplification factor of the
human ther~noregulatorysystem, if the offset was known for a given disturbance.
However, it has not been possible to show such a dependence. This might be due to a
 ....',,".... ....-... --.. I----, - -
interested in is the relationship between the disturbance and the degree of thermal
discomfort. That such a relationship exists has bee11shown by Fanger [l]. The principal
relationship is shown in figure 3.

hot +3

warm +2

sltg1'7Lly w ~ r m + l

neuiral 0

s(rghLQ~c o o l -1

COOL -2

CO /d -3 - 0 + offset,

Fig. 3 - The degree of thermal discomfort as a function of the load error (disturbance)

The heat balance equatioil for the h u ~ n a nbody can be written as follows:

MSW = H = E,,+E,,,+K (2)

K =R+C (3)
T o indicate values of the quantities mentioned, which correspond to thermal
comfort, the index c will be used, and for the actual values index a will be used.
The disturbance is defined as the difference between the internal heat production
and the heat loss to the actual environ~llentfrom a person hypothetically kept in
thermal comfort at the actual activity level. Using the above-mentioned quantities the
disturbance is given by the expression:

AH = H" - (E,, + E,,,)' -(R + C)" ( 4)

While E,, is al~iiostindependent of the degree of discomfort, E,,, will increase
rapidly with the degree of disconifort on the warn1 side. With good accuracy E:, and
E:,, are linear fi~nctionsof the activity level and are independent of the ambient air
temperature and humidity (fig. 4). I n the following we shall see how the dry heat
+
loss KC= (R C)" can be determined. For this purpose, a block diagram of the body
heat loss is drawn in figure 5.
Applyiilg O~III'SSaw on the steady-state heat flow from the body core to the
environment we find:
T, = Tb-(E,,,+K). I,
T,, = T, - K . I,,
To = T,,-(RfC). I,
The heat loss by radiation and convection can be calculated from standard formulas,
when the meall surface temperature is known together with the air temperature, the
person in question.

f cvaporotive heoi foss "/mi

Fig. 4 - E:, and E:,, as a function of the activity level (metabolic rate).

Fig. 5 - Blockdiagram of the body heat loss.

To calculate the combined heat loss KC= (R + C)' from the person in hypothetical
comfort the mean surface temperature TE1 of the clothed body must be known. As
will be recognized from the heat flow diagram, this tenlperature will depend on the
desired heat loss ( R + C)'. This problem must therefore be solved by iteration ~lsing
the following formula:
T,", = T,"-(R+C)"I,,
where
T," = Ti-(Hu - Ez.JI;

Fig. 6 - Insulation of the skin in the comfort conditio~las a fullctioll of the activity level
 ..- ...<-..-...-.. -
-5 -
level and can be found fro111figure 6. I,C cannot be ~neasureddirectly but is determined
by measuring the mean skin tenlperature and metabolic rate of subjects in thermal
comfort at various activity levels. T,C can therefore also be taken directly from such
measurements.
In practice, it is rather tedious and difficult to measure the air velocity and Inearl
radiant temperature with sufficient accuracy. Therefore it seems niore appropriate
to measure the conlbined radiation and convection heat loss directly by measuring
the energy input which is necessary to keep the surface temperature of a full size body
shaped instrument at the value corresponding to ther~nalcornfort. Even a smaller
instrun~entcould be used as long as it has the same radiation and convection properties
as the full size instrument. In the following, two such instrunlents which have been
constructed at our laboratory will be described in somewhat Inore detail.

Fig. 7 - The thermal lllanikili in a climate room.

The instrument is shown in figure 7, [2]. As can be seen fro111the photo, the various
parts of the body have been si~nplifiedin shape and are made up either of planes or
cylinders. Each segment is co~npoundedof two 1 Inn1 alu~niniurnplates glued on each
side of a 2 mm thick plate of polystyrene foam. To the inside plate is glued a resistance
grid. The temperature of the plate is kept constant at a set point by an electronic
control system. The outer plate is painted in a colour having the same e~nissivityas the
skin. The temperature difference across the insulation, which has a value equal to that
of the skin 1; at an activity level corresponding to sedentary or light work, is measured
by means of thermo couples. The total number of heat flow meter segments is 37.
This allows for a very detailed analysis of the heat loss fro111the various parts of the
body. In a non-uniform ther~nalenvironnlent one may expect that the degree of
disturbance as defined earlier. The instrume~ltis especially suitable in studies eluci-
dating this problem, and also in the study of the thermal environment produced by
various types of heating, cooling and ventilating systerns.

Although the manikin must be considered as the most correct instrument for
nleasuring the thernlal environinent with respect to a person, a sinaller and for practical
purposes inore handy instrument has been constructed (fig. 8), [3].

Fig. 8 - The thermal comfort meter.

The purpose of this part of the apparatus is to determine the dry heat einittance
from a person to the actual surroundings, the person wearing the clothing set on the
instrument. This is achieved by an appropriate choice of the sensor's:
- size,
- shape,
 ,,\'J'LL"",

- radiation properties,
- surface tenlperature.
The size is chosen so that the relationship between the heat emittance by convection
and by radiation is the sanle as for a person. According to Fanger [l], the effective
radiant area of a person is only 0.7 times the convection area. This is due to the fact
that a reciprocal radiation exchange occurs between some parts of tlie body, e.g.
between the inner sides of the legs and between the arms and the sides of the body.
O n tlie other hand, the sensor's radiation- and convection-area are equal. This nleans
that the sensor will emit 110.7 = 1.4 times as iiluch heat per unit area by radiation as a
person wo~lldat the salne spot. However, it is propitio~isthat a heated body's con-
vective heat emittance per unit area becolnes greater when the body becomes smaller.
Therefore the main dinlensions of the sensor are chosen so that its convective heat
emittance per unit area is 110.7 = 1.4 tiines as great as for a person. In other words,
the sensor emits, at the same surface temperature, 1.4 times as niuch heat per unit
area to the environinent as a person would emit.
The result of these considerations is a rotating eilipsoid, with the greatest radiation
area relationship (0.28) at right angles to the rotation axis, and the s:nallest (0.08)
parallel to the rotation axis.
The positiot? can be chosen as I, I1 or I11 by setting the cylindricsl connecting link
between the sensor and the tripod, corresponding respectively to a standing, seated
o r recumbent person. Thus the sensor's area relationship in the main directions of the
rooln will be in agreement with that of a person in the same position.
The rnclintiorz properties are chosen so that for longwave radiation it corresponds
to the absorptance for both a nude and a clothed person. For short-wave radiation
(solar) the absorptance depends on the colour of the surface. One cannot simulate
persons in both light and dark clothing with a single sensor. The colour of the sensor is
chosen so that it corresponds to uncovered skin and rather light clothing.
The slirfuce temperrrtzire. By means of the instrument's adjusting knob for clothing,
the regulating system for controlling the surface teniperature of the sensor can be
varied so that after a short period of adjustnlent (approx. 1 min) it assulnes the same
value as the mean surface teniperat~rreof a person in thermal comfort, with clothing
corresponding to that set on the instrument.

The control circuit for regulating the sensor's surface teinperature consists of a
Wlieatstone nieasuring bridge, one branch of which is a nickel wire wound up around
the sensor device. Tlie bridge is adjusted s9 that it is in balance when the sensor's
surface temperature is equal to the inner body temperature, corresponding to a heat
loss of nil. The bridge controls tlie electrical effect conveyed t o the sensor so that this
becomes proportional to the in~balanceof the bridge, i.e. to the difference between the
body's inner temperature and its surface temperature. I-fowever, as the relationship
between the temperature difference and tlie eruitted effect depends on the clothing

+
the regulating circuit is arranged so that the proportionality factor (m,,,,, m,,,,,,,,,,)
alters when the clo-value is set on the instrument.
Tlie instrument is shown on figure 8, where tlie dials for setting the activity level,
the clo-value and the water vapour pressure can be seen. 011 the instrunient scale the
degree of therinal discoiufort can be read either in nunlbers (PMV-value) corresponding
to figure 3, or in percentage of thermally dissatisfied (PPD-value).
 As most people still connect the term thermal comfort with temperature percep-
tion, the instrument is designed so that it can be used also for the determination of
room temperature. By room temperature is understood the equal value of mean radiant
temperature and air temperature at air velocity nil, which gives the same dry heat loss
from a person as the actual combination of mean radiant temperature, air temperature
and air velocity.

the offset;
the disturbance;
the amplification factor;
a factor depending on the units used for AT and AH;
the metabolic rate;
the external work;
the internal heat production;
the total respiration heat loss;
the latent heat loss through the skin;
the sensible heat loss through the skin;
the heat loss by radiation from the clothed body;
the heat loss by convection from the clothed body;
the deep body temperature;
the mean skin temperature;
the mean temperature of the clothed body;
the operative temperature of the environment;
the insulation of the skin;
the insulation of the clothing;
the insulation from the clothing surface to the environment at the uniform
temperature To.

REFERENCES

[I] P.O. FANGER, Thermal Comfort. Danish Technical Press, Copenhagen (1970).
[2] KORSGAARD, VAGNand Th. LUNDMADSEN, En mannequin til bestemmelse af indendnrs-
klimaets termiske virkninger p l mennesket. (Using a manikin to evaluate indoor thermal
effects on the human body). VVS No. 9, 1967.
[3] Th. LUNDMADSEN, A New Instrument for Measuring Thermal Comfort. 5th International
Congress.for Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning, Copenhagen (1971).
[4] Th. LUNDMADSEN,Thermal Environmental Parameters and their Measurement. CIB
Cornmission W45-Syn~posium,BRE, Watford, London, (Sept. 1972).