Course Code: CEC210A Course Title: Building Planning and Computer Aided Drafting Course Team: Dr. H M Rajashekhar Swamy /deepthi /chetan /ritupurna

Course Code: CEC210A
Course Title:
Building Planning and Computer Aided Drafting
Course team:
Dr. H M Rajashekhar Swamy /Deepthi /Chetan /Ritupurna
Lecture:6
Title: Building Physics-Thermal comfort
Delivered By: Dr. H M Rajashekhar Swamy
1
Faculty of Engineering & Technology ©M. S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences
Lecture Intended Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lecture, student will be able to:
• Discuss thermal comfort factors

• Describe thermal balance of human body
• Explain thermal comfort indices
2
Contents
Building Physics
Thermal comfort: Thermal balance of human body - subjective
variables - thermal comfort indices and uses - comfort zone
3
Thermal Comfort Factors
Introduction
• Our daily life cycle comprises states of activity, fatigue and recovery
• It is essential that the mind and body recovers through recreation,
rest and sleep to counter-balance the mental and physical fatigue
resulting from the activities of the day
• This cycle can be and is often impeded by unfavorable climatic
conditions and the resulting stress on body and mind causes
discomfort, loss of efficiency and may eventually lead to a
breakdown of health
• The effect of climate on man is therefore a factor of considerable
importance
4
Introduction
• The task of the designer is to create the best possible indoor
climate
• The occupants of a building judge the quality of the design from a
physical as well as an emotional point of view
• It is a challenge for the designer to strive towards the optimum of
total comfort which may be defined as the sensation of complete
physical and mental well-being
• Criteria of total comfort depend upon each of the human senses
5
Introduction
• Human response to the thermal environment does not depend on
air temperature ,humidity ,radiation and air movement all produce
thermal effects and must be considered simultaneously if human
responses are to be predicted
• To appreciate the effect of these climatic factors, it is necessary to

examine briefly the basic thermal processes of the human body
6
The body’s heat production
• Heat is continuously produced by the body
• Most of the biochemical processes involved in tissue-building, energy

conversion and muscular work are exotherm (heat producing)
• All energy and material requirements of the body are supplied from
the consumption and digestion of food
• The processes involved in converting foodstuff into living matter and

useful form of energy are known as metabolism
7
• The total metabolic heat production can be divided into basal
mechanism, i.e the heat production of vegetative, automatic
processes which are continuous and the muscular metabolism
• i.e the heat production of muscles whilst carrying out consciously
controlled work
• Of all the energy produced in the body, only about 20% is utilized,
the remaining 80% is surplus heat and must be dissipated to the
environment
• The excess heat production varies with the overall metabolic rate
and depends on the activity
8
• This following table indicates the rate of excess heat output of the
body in various activities
Activity Watts
Sleeping min 70
Sitting, moderate movement e.g typing 130-160
Standing , light work at machine or bench 160-190
Sitting, heavy arm and leg movements 190-230
Standing, moderate work, some walking 220-290
Walking, moderate lifting or pushing 290-410
Intermediate heavy lifting, digging 440-580
Hardest sustained work 580-700
Maximum heavy work for 30 minutes duration Max.1100
9
The body’s heat loss
• The deep body temperature must remain balanced and constant
around 37 ͦC
• In order to maintain body temperature at this steady level, all
surplus heat must be dissipated to the environment
• If there is some form of simultaneous heat gain from the
environment (eg. Solar radiation or warm air) that also must be
dissipated
• The body can release heat to its environment by convection,
radiation and evaporation and to a lesser extent by conduction
10
• Convection is due to heat transmission from the body to the air in
contact with the skin or clothing which then rises and is replaced by
cooler air
• The rate of convective heat loss is increased by a faster rate of air
movement by a lower air temperature and a higher skin
temperature
• Radiant heat loss depends on the temperature of the body surface
and the temperature of opposing surfaces
11
• Evaporation heat loss is governed by the rate of evaporation which
in turn depends on the humidity of air (dryer the air , faster the
evaporation) and on the amount of moisture available for
evaporation
• Evaporation takes place in the lungs through breathing and on the

skin as imperceptible perspiration and sweat
• Conduction depends on the temperature difference between the

body surface and the object the body id in direct contact with
12
Body Heat Exchange
Sweat
Exhalation Evaporation
Insensible
Perspiration
Radiation Convection
Radiation
Conduction
13
Faculty
©M. S. of
Ramaiah
Engineering
University
& Technology
of Applied Sciences ©M. S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences
Regulatory Mechanisms
• The thermal balance of the body can be expressed by an equation
• If the heat gain and heat loss factors are:
• Gain: Met=metabolism(basal and muscular)
Cnd =conduction (contact with warm bodies)
Cnv =convection (if the air is warmer than the skin)
Rad= radiation (from the sun, the sky and hot bodies)
• Loss: Cnd =conduction(contact with cold bodies)
Cnv =convection (if the air is cooler than the skin)
Rad= radiation(to night sky and cold surfaces)
Evp =evaporation(of moisture and sweat)
Then thermal balance exists when,
Met  Evp  Cnd  Cnv  Rad  0
14
Thermal balance of the body
Deep Body
Temperature
Convection
Conduction 37 ͦ
Radiation 38 ͦ 36 ͦ
39 ͦ 35 ͦ
Shivering Evaporation
Basal- Radiation
Metabolism Convection
Activity Conduction
15
Met  Evp  Cnd  Cnv  Rad  0
• As soon as this sum is more than zero, vasomotor adjustments will

take place: blood circulation to the skin surface is increased, more
heat is transported to the surface and the skin temperature is
elevated –all forms of heat loss processes are accelerated
• Conversely, if the sum of the above equation is less than zero, the
blood circulation to the skin is reduced, skin temperature is lowered
and the heat loss processes are slowed down
16
Heat loss in various thermal environments
• In classifying tropical climates into six categories and in discussing
deviations of the site climate, the importance of four basic factors
has been emphasized which would directly affect human comfort,
namely :air temperature, humidity, air movement and radiation
• The importance of these factors should now be obvious: each

influences is some way the heat exchange processes between the
human body and its environment each may aid or impede the
discussion of surplus heat from the body
17
Thermal comfort indices
Effective temperature (ET)
• The first scale was produced by Houghton and Yaglou in 1923, working
at the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers
• Their findings were plotted on psychrometric chart producing equal
comfort lines
• They named the new scale as effective temperature
18
Introduction
Psychrometric chart with effective temperature lines
19
Corrected Effective Temperature(CET)
• Whilst the ET scale integrates the effects of three variables-
originally of temperature and humidity but a later form included air
movement-the corrected effective temperature scale also includes
radiation effects
• This scale is at present the most widely used one
20
Equivalent warmth (EW)
• Experiments were carried out by Bedford in England among over
2000 factory workers
• The subjects were engaged in little work, under varying indoor
conditions
• Air temperature, humidity and mean radiant temperature were
measured and recorded together with the subjective responses of
the workers
• Surface temperatures of skin and clothing were also measured and
recorded
• After correlating the findings using statistical analysis methods , the
equivalent warmth scale was constructed and defined by a
nomogram
21
Equivalent warmth (EW)
• It is now thought to be reliable within the comfort zone upto 35 ͦC
with high RH , but it underestimates the cooling effect of air
movement with high humidities
22
Operative temperature (OT)
• Another scale was developed in the USA by Winslow, Herrington

and Gagge in principle very similar to the scale of equivalent
warmth
• It combined the effects of radiation and air temperature
• Studies were carried out for a specific region with cool conditions
where the effects of humidity were small and the rate of air
movement also negligible
23
Equatorial comfort index
• This was developed by C G Webb in Singapore during 1960
• Subjective responses of acclimatised subjects were recorded
together with measurements of air temperature, humidity and air
movement-the experimentally-found relationships were organized
into a formula and shown on a graph, very similar to the ET
nomogram
24
Resultant temperature(RT)
• Developed by Missenard in France, this scale is a slight
improvement on the ET scale
• The nomogram defining it is almost identical with ET nomogram
• It is thought to be reliable for moderate climates but not for
tropical conditions as it does not allow sufficiently for the cooling
effects of air movement over 35 ͦC and 80% RH
25
Predicted four hour sweat rate (P4SR)
• This scale which attempts to correlate subjective sensations with
climatic measurement, is primarily concerned with the objective
determination of physical stress as indicated by the rate of sweat
from the body, by the pulse and by internal temperature
• The method of measuring the rate of sweating was developed
during experiments carried out for the British naval authorities in
1947, intended to consider the special heat stresses experienced by
seaman
• Metabolic rates as well as clothing , air temperature , humidity , air
movement and mean radiant temperature of the surroundings
were considered
26
Predicted four hour sweat rate (P4SR)
• The sweat rate scale was established on the basis of many different
combination of the above variables producing the same sweat rate,
thus presumably the same physiological stress
• It seems to the most reliable scale for high temperature conditions
but not suitable for temperature below 28 ͦC
• The cooling effect of air movements at high humidities is
underestimated
27
Heat Stress Index (HSI)
• On the basis of theoretical considerations similar to the above, a
further scale was developed in USA
• Several physiological assumptions were made and calculation
methods evolved to find an indication of heat stress on the basis of
environmental measurements
• Metabolic heat production of subjects doing various kinds of work
was measured and taken as an indication of heat stress
• It is thought to be reliable for still air between 27 and 35 ͦC, 30 and
80%RH and for lower humidities if temperature are higher but
unsuitable for the comfort zone
28
The bioclimatic chart
• Some Australian experiments have shown that under overheated-
conditions, when low metabolic rates will already produce discomfort,
the DBT values correlate much better with subjective judgments than
ET values
• On the basis of this and similar doubts V Olgyay arrived at the idea,
that there is no point in constructing a single figure index, as each of
the four components are controllable by different means
• He has constructed a bioclimatic chart on which the comfort zone is
defined in terms of DBT and RH, but subsequently it is shown bt
additional lines how this comfort zone is pushed up by the presence of
air movements and how it is lowered by radiation
29
Index of thermal stress (ITS)
• After reviewing and checking the validity and reliability of many
previously used thermal indices Givioni set out to a new index from
first priciples
• The index of thermal stress developed by him is the calculated cooling
rate produced by sweating, which would maintain thermal balance
under the given conditions
• The calculation is based on a refined biophysical model of the man-
environment thermal system
• The index takes into account all the subjective and objective thermal
factors
• Its usefulness extends from comfortable to overhead conditions as far
as the physiological adjustments are able to maintain thermal balance
30
Comfort Scales and Deign
• Most existing indices have some limitations in their practical
application and usefulness under different conditions
• Some of these difficulties arise from the fact that the experiments
were carried out under widely varying indoor climatic conditions-
also the experimental methods were different
• As a consequence of this, each of the indices is valid and useful for

a limited range of conditions-not universally
31
Comfort Scales and Deign
• Perhaps the only exception in the CET scale, which id the result of a
number of improvements on the original ET scale developed by
Houghton and Yaglou
• This is the most widely used and best understood scale although its
accuracy is doubted by some research workers it is adequate under
most conditions
• It will be used throughout the following sections as a method for
translating regional and site climatic data into a single index figure, to
be used as a guide in establishing thermal comfort criteria for indoor
climate
32
Summary
• The first scale was produced by Houghton and Yaglou in 1923,
working at the American Society of Heating and Ventilating
Engineers. Their findings were plotted on psychrometric chart
producing equal comfort lines. They named the new scale as
effective temperature
• Whilst the ET scale integrates the effects of three variables-

originally of temperature and humidity but a later form included air
movement-the corrected effective temperature scale also includes
radiation effects. This scale is at present the most widely used one.
33

Course Code: CEC210A Course Title: Building Planning and Computer Aided Drafting Course Team: Dr. H M Rajashekhar Swamy /deepthi /chetan /ritupurna

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Course Code: CEC210A

At the end of this lecture, student will be able to:

• Discuss thermal comfort factors

• To appreciate the effect of these climatic factors, it is necessary to

• Most of the biochemical processes involved in tissue-building, energy

• The processes involved in converting foodstuff into living matter and

• Evaporation takes place in the lungs through breathing and on the

• Conduction depends on the temperature difference between the

• As soon as this sum is more than zero, vasomotor adjustments will

• The importance of these factors should now be obvious: each

• Another scale was developed in the USA by Winslow, Herrington

• As a consequence of this, each of the indices is valid and useful for

• Whilst the ET scale integrates the effects of three variables-

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