L5 Thermal comfort factors and

indices

CE 2050 Course notes 2020

Sunitha K Nayar

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Lecture objectives
●
To correlate human functioning and thermal balance in
the body
●
To correlate body responses to various extreme
tropical climatic factors
●
To be able to quantify various comfort factors by
suitable indices

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Daily life cycle
●
Activity
●
Fatigue
●
Recovery

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How the quality of design is judged?
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Indoor climate
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Physical and emotional point of view
●
Criteria of total comfort – related to human senses
●
Emotional relationships – difficult to theorise
●
Human thermal comfort - emphasised

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 Human body – thermal balance
●
Heat production
●
Basal metabolism
●
Muscular metabolism
20% utilised by body
for various activities
•
Heat produced
80% surplus heat –
to be dissipated

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 Body’s heat loss
●
Deep body temperature should be constant

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Mechanisms of heat loss from body

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Factors affecting each mode of
heat loss
• Convection
• Air movement velocity
• Air temperature
• Skin temperature
• Radiation
• Body temperature
• Surrounding object temperature
• Evaporation
• Humidity
• Moisture available
• Conduction
• Temperature difference between bodies in contact

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Thermal balance of the body
●
Met – Evp CndCnvRad=0

Heat gain due to

•Met = metabolism
•Cnd = conduction
•Cnv = convection
•Rad = radiation
Heat loss due to
•Cnd = conduction
•Cnv = convection
•Rad = radiation
•Evp = evaporation

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJhsyS4lTW0
Thermal balance of the body
• If the sum > 0
• Vasomotor adjustments – all forms of heat loss process is
accelerated
• Sweating
• If the sum < 0
• Vasomotor adjustments
• Shivering
• Goose bumps
• Acclimatisation
• Long-term, endocrine adjustments
• Change in
• basal metabolic heat production
• increase in the quantity of blood (to produce and
• maintain a constant vaso-dilation)
• increase in sweat rate.

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Relationship between climatic
factors and heat loss
• Critical factors
• Air temperature
• Humidity
• Air movement
• Radiation

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Calm warm air, moderate
humidity
• Air temp. 18 C
• Air vel. < 0.25 m/s
• Humidity – 40 – 60 %
• Heat dissipated by a person engaged in sedentary
work
• By radiation – 45%
• By convection – 30%
• By evaporation – 25%

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Hot air and considerable radiation
• Skin temperature – 31- 34 C
• Air temperature approaches skin temp. - convective
heat loss decreases
• As surface temp. increases – radiative heat gain
occurs instead of loss
• Both Cnv and Rad are +ve –
• evaporation by sweating will happen – air is sufficiently
dry
Most necessary for comfort condition is sufficiently
dry air.
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Hot air, high radiation and
appreciable air movement
• Cnv and Rad are positive
• Humidity < 100 % – movement of air will accelerate
evaporation
• For vapour pressure > 2000 N/m2, every 1 m/s
increase in air velocity will compensate for an
increase of 300 N/m2 vapour pressure
• If humidity = 100% - air movement will cause more
discomfort
• Almost never possible in natural conditions
• High air temp and high humidity rarely occurs
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Saturated still air above body
temperature, high humidity
• Air temp. and surface temp. > skin temp.
• No air movement
• If 100 % RH so Evp = 0, Cnv and Rad will only be +ve
• All elements in heat balance equations are +ve with even
very small metabolic heat
• Body temp rises
• By 2-3 deg C – heat stroke
• At 41 deg C – coma
• At 45 deg C - death
• Could happen inside poorly designed and managed
buildings

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Subjective variables
• Clothing
• Acclimatisation – full adjustment period – 30 days
• Thermal preference may change – comfort at 18 deg C may change
to 25 deg C
• Age and sex
• Body shape – surface to vol. Ratio – more for thin persons so
can dissipate heat more effectively
• Subcutaneous fat – thermal insulator , needs lower temp. for
dissipation
• State of health – tolerable ranges may be narrower
• Food and drink
• Skin colour – dark skin increases heat emission in the same
proportion as absorption

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Prolonged exposure
• Physiological control mechanisms can maintain life
• Loss of efficiency in work
• Physical strain
• Even comfort factors may become detrimental after
long duration e.g., high velocity wind
• Perfectly comfortable – adverse effect if there is no
change – especially in mechanically controlled
environments

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 Lecture outcome

●
To be able to quantify thermal comfort
conditions based on human body’s thermal
balance
●
Identify the factors affecting thermal comfort
conditions in relation to the climatic factors

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