Evaluation of enhanced conduction-corrected modified effective temperature ETFe as the outdoor thermal environment evaluation index

The purpose of this paper is made to clarify that the relationship between the human physiological and psychological responses and the enhanced conduction-corrected modified effective temperature ETFe as the outdoor thermal environment evaluation index upon the human body. Environmental factors and human physiological and psychological responses were measured. It was made clear that the variables by which summer outdoor environmental factors influence the thermal sensation vote are heat conduction, humidity and short-wave solar radiation. The variables that affect the thermal comfort vote are air velocity, heat conduction and humidity. ETFe, into which the environmental factors that are the variables for human response are incorporated, showed good correspondence with the thermal sensation vote. Similarly, ETFe has a good correspondence with thermal comfort vote. The usage of ETFe as a thermal environment evaluation index for summer outdoor spaces is valid. The threshold for the human body with regards to thermal environment stimuli in an outdoor space is higher than the thermal environment stimuli in a summer indoor space.     

Conduction-corrected modified effective temperature as the indices of combined and separate effect of environmental factors on sensational temperature

In living spaces, people sit or lie on the floor and adopt a posture in which much of the surface of the body is in contact with the floor. When the temperature of the spatial structure or the surface temperature of an object in contact with the human body is not equivalent to the air temperature, these effects are non-negligible. Most research examining the physiological and psychological responses of the human body has involved subjects sitting in chairs. Research that takes into account body heat balance and assessments of thermal conduction into the environment is uncommon. Thus, in this study, conduction-corrected modified effective temperature (ETF), which is a new thermal environmental index incorporating heat conduction, is defined in order to make possible the evaluation of thermal environments that take into account different postures. This sensational temperature index converts the effects of the following parameters into a temperature equivalent: air velocity, thermal radiation, contact material surface temperature and humidity. This index has the features of a summation formula. Through the use of these parameters, it is possible to represent and quantify their composite influence on bodily sensation and the effects of discrete meteorological elements through an evaluation on an identical axis.     

New index indicating the universal and separate effects on human comfort under outdoor and non-uniform thermal conditions

The purpose of this study is to propose new thermal index for outdoor and non-uniform environments with heat conduction, such as when a person sits on a bench at a park. This paper describes mathematically the theory of how solar radiation and heat conduction, as well as air temperature, humidity, air velocity and longwave radiation, are incorporated into the new index and how these thermal factors that may not be uniform are treated. Another important feature is that separate indices are generated for each factor while the new index is derived. It is expected that the new index will help us to understand how much each factor affects the human thermal comfort in outdoor and non-uniform environments with heat conduction.