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Evaluating the performance of thermal sensation prediction with a biophysical model
Author(s) -
Schweiker M.,
Kingma B. R. M.,
Wagner A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
indoor air
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.387
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1600-0668
pISSN - 0905-6947
DOI - 10.1111/ina.12372
Subject(s) - thermal sensation , thermal comfort , sensation , variance (accounting) , thermal , balance (ability) , work (physics) , environmental science , operative temperature , simulation , computer science , meteorology , psychology , thermodynamics , physics , physical medicine and rehabilitation , cognitive psychology , medicine , accounting , business
Abstract Neutral thermal sensation is expected for a human body in heat balance in near‐steady‐state thermal environments. The physiological thermoneutral zone ( TNZ ) is defined as the range of operative temperatures where the body can maintain such heat balance by actively adjusting body tissue insulation, but without regulatory increases in metabolic rate or sweating. These basic principles led to the hypothesis that thermal sensation relates to the operative temperature distance from the thermoneutral centroid ( dTNZ op ). This hypothesis was confirmed by data from respiratory climate chamber experiments. This paper explores the potential of such biophysical model for the prediction of thermal sensation under increased contextual variance. Data (798 votes, 47 participants) from a controlled office environment were used to analyze the predictive performance of the dTNZ op model. The results showed a similar relationship between dTNZ op and thermal sensation between the dataset used here and the previously used dataset. The predictive performance had the same magnitude as that of the PMV model; however, potential benefits of using a biophysical model are discussed. In conclusion, these findings confirm the potential of the biophysical model with regard to the understanding and prediction of human thermal sensation. Further work remains to make benefit of its full potential.