Journal of Ergonomics
Open Access

Abstract

Behavioral Thermoregulation Model for Evaluation of Outdoor Thermal Environment

Yoshihito Kurazumi, Tomonori Sakoi, Tadahiro Tsuchikawa, Kenta Fukagawa, Zhecho Dimitrov Bolashikov and Tetsumi Horikoshi

In the outdoor environment, the effect of the physical environmental factors that compose the sensational and physiological temperature is remarkably large in comparison to the indoor environment. The purpose of this paper is to propose and develop a behavioral thermoregulation model in the outdoor environment, in order to predict the mean skin temperature for the evaluation of outdoor environment. This model is based on a Two-Node Model, and has three components: direct solar radiation, indirect solar radiation, and heat conduction. Each body part consists of core and skin layers. The model formula, by ratio of body weight of skin layer of heat conductance between skin and core layer, was included in this model. To verify this model, experiments were conducted. It was shown from the relation between ETFe (Enhanced conduction-corrected modified effective temperature) and mean skin temperature that it is possible to quantity explicitly the effects owing to outdoor environmental factors, short-wave solar radiation, heat conduction etc. It was made clear that the current model is valid for simulated mean skin temperature in the outdoor environment.�