scholarly journals Thermal comfort findings: Scenario at Malaysian automotive industry

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Ismail ◽  
Kumar Karagaratnan ◽  
Kumaran Kadirgama

This paper discusses the findings of thermal comfort assessment at Malaysian automotive industry. Nine critical workstations were chosen as subjects for the study in order to determine the thermal comfort among workers at Malaysian automotive industry. The human subjects for the study comprises of the operators from tire receiving, dashboard assembly, drum tester, body assembly, seat assembly, door check assembly, stamping workstation, engine sub assembly and paint shop of the factory. The environmental factors such as Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT), relative humidity, air velocity, illuminance were measured using BABUC A apparatus and Thermal Comfort Measurement equipment. Through questionnaire survey, the demographic data of subjects and their perceptions on thermal comfort at each workstation were assessed based on ISO Standard 7730 and thermal sensation scale using Predicted Mean Vote (PMV). Then, Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD) is used to estimate the thermal satisfaction of occupants. The results indicated that most of the workstations of the automotive industry are considered as uncomfortable. Tire receiving station is considered having better working environment compared to other stations with lowest PMV index of 1.09 to 1.41 and PPD of 46%. Meanwhile, the engine sub assembly station and paint shop of assembly are considered the worst thermal environment with the PMV index values ranging between 2.1 to 2.9 and PPD values of 81% to 99%. Therefore, these two workstations are considered not comfortable because the thermal sensation scale is warm and almost hot.

2019 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 06054
Author(s):  
Noriko Umemiya ◽  
Kurumi Yamagata ◽  
Tomohiro Kobayashi

Relations between bedroom thermal environment changes and subjective sleep quality and thermal comfort were surveyed for 63 apartment occupants during midsummer in Osaka. Changes of Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) of 123 air-conditioned and 41 naturally ventilated nights were compared. 1) For air-conditioned bedrooms, sleep quality was better for smaller changes of WBGT from the beginning of sleep and for faster changes of WBGT to constant from the beginning of sleep. 2) For naturally ventilated bedrooms, a) WBGT increased from the beginning of sleep and decreased toward the end of sleep for higher sleep quality nights. However, WBGT decreased from the beginning of sleep and increased toward the end of sleep for lower sleep quality nights. b) The WBGT change was smaller for thermally comfortable nights.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (6 Part A) ◽  
pp. 4225-4231
Author(s):  
Xiaodan Huang ◽  
Qingyuan Zhang ◽  
Xiaoli Ma

In order to improve the design effect of venues, this paper establishes the evaluation model of indoor thermal comfort for the humid and hot subtropical areas, which provides theoretical reference for venue design. This paper investigates the thermal sensation of basketball players by questionnaire, analyzes the relation-ship between thermal sensation vote and standard effective temperature, predicted mean vote, and wet bulb globe temperature, and develops an index called predicted thermal sensation by using the least square method. The relationship between outdoor air temperature and indoor working temperature under neutral conditions is obtained by measuring data. The results show that the correlation between thermal sensation vote and air temperature is the strongest, R2 is 0.753, while the relationship between thermal sensation vote and air speed is weak, R2 is 0.012. Thermal sensation vote and set, predicted mean vote and wet bulb globe temperature are not suitable for athletes in the field environment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 328 ◽  
pp. 01001
Author(s):  
Natalia Krawczyk ◽  
Andrej Kapjor ◽  
Łukasz J. Orman

This study presents the issue of thermal comfort based on the Fanger model. The research was conducted in 5 rooms in the autumn-winter period. The research consisted of measurement of thermal environment parameters, air temperature and flow rate, relative air humidity, globe temperature sensor and light intensity. During the research, the students filled in questionnaires concerning thermal sensation. This allowed them to express their assessment of thermal comfort (predicted mean vote PMV and predicted percentage of dissatisfied PPD), as well as their preferences concerning the prevailing room conditions. Differences between the actual average predicted rating index and the Fanger model were shown. It can be noted that Fanger’s model does not reflect the results of the respondents.


Technologies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Siliang Lu ◽  
Erica Cochran Hameen

Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems play a key role in shaping office environments. However, open-plan office buildings nowadays are also faced with problems like unnecessary energy waste and an unsatisfactory shared indoor thermal environment. Therefore, it is significant to develop a new paradigm of an HVAC system framework so that everyone could work under their preferred thermal environment and the system can achieve higher energy efficiency such as task ambient conditioning system (TAC). However, current task conditioning systems are not responsive to personal thermal comfort dynamically. Hence, this research aims to develop a dynamic task conditioning system featuring personal thermal comfort models with machine learning and the wireless non-intrusive sensing system. In order to evaluate the proposed task conditioning system performance, a field study was conducted in a shared office space in Shanghai from July to August. As a result, personal thermal comfort models with indoor air temperature, relative humidity and cheek (side face) skin temperature have better performances than baseline models with indoor air temperature only. Moreover, compared to personal thermal satisfaction predictions, 90% of subjects have better performances in thermal sensation predictions. Therefore, personal thermal comfort models could be further implemented into the task conditioning control of TAC systems.


Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 769 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Fantozzi ◽  
Giulia Lamberti

In previous years, providing comfort in indoor environments has become a major question for researchers. Thus, indoor environmental quality (IEQ)—concerning the aspects of air quality, thermal comfort, visual and acoustical quality—assumed a crucial role. Considering sport facilities, the evaluation of the thermal environment is one of the main issues that should be faced, as it may interfere with athletes’ performance and health. Thus, the necessity of a review comprehending the existing knowledge regarding the evaluation of the thermal environment and its application to sport facilities becomes increasingly relevant. This paper has the purpose to consolidate the aspects related to thermal comfort and their application to sport practice, through a deep study concerning the engineering, physiological, and psychological approaches to thermal comfort, a review of the main standards on the topic and an analysis of the methodologies and the models used by researchers to determine the thermal sensation of sport facilities’ occupants. Therefore, this review provides the basis for future research on the determination of thermal comfort in indoor sport facilities located in moderate environments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 9284
Author(s):  
Jiao Xue ◽  
Xiao Hu ◽  
Shu Nuke Sani ◽  
Yuanyuan Wu ◽  
Xinyu Li ◽  
...  

Thermally comfortable outdoor spaces have contributed to high-quality urban living. In order to provide a further understanding of the influences of gender and long-term thermal history on outdoor thermal comfort, this study conducted field surveys at a university campus in Shanghai, China by carrying out microclimatic monitoring and subjective questionnaires from May to October, 2019. The analysis of collected data found that, during our survey, 57% of the occupants felt comfortable overall and 40–60% of them perceived the microclimate variables (air temperature, humidity, solar radiation, and wind speed) as “neutral”. The universal thermal climate index (UTCI) provided a better correlation with occupant thermal sensation than the physiologically equivalent temperature (PET). Females were more sensitive to the outdoor thermal environment than males. Older age led to lower thermal sensation, but the thermal sensitivities for age groups of <20, 20–50, and >50 were similar. Occupants who had resided in Shanghai for a longer period showed higher overall comfort rating and lower thermal sensation. Interviewees who came from hot summer and cold winter climate regions were less effected by the change of UTCI than those from severe cold or cold climate regions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 878 ◽  
pp. 173-178
Author(s):  
Chorpech Panraluk ◽  
Atch Sreshthaputra

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the Thermal comfort of the Thai elderly in air-conditioned space. The quantitative evaluation was conducted using 163 senior participants while recording their expressed satisfaction within the thermal environment in four public health service buildings in Phitsanulok Province, Thailand. It revealed that for the Thai elderly, the Predicted Mean Vote could not be used to identify the Thermal Sensation Vote. In addition, the results of this study indicated that personal factors, such as gender, age, and underlying disease correlating affect their Thermal Sensation Vote. Perhaps most significantly, a coincidental finding was that the thermal sensation of the Thai elderly was strongly dependent upon the condition of the occupant’s metabolic syndrome, which belonged to the Non-Communicable Disease group. This study assumed that in the elderly, the metabolic syndrome might have an effect on their metabolic rate (as one of the six factors of thermal comfort). In terms of the environmental factors, the on-site environmental data was collected via field works. It found that the air-conditioned spaces had mean radiant temperatures of 23.20-31.40 °C, this condition would make seniors feel comfortable if the thermal environment in the study areas were controlled: air temperature 23.00-27.80 °C, relative humidity 54.00-73.00% and air velocity 0.08-0.72 m/s. However, some elderly wanted to change this thermal environment to either cooler (10.68%) or warmer (4.85%). Therefore, it should be further study to find the proper thermal environment for covering the most of the seniors in Thailand.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Robert Guaracy Aparecido Cardoso Araujo ◽  
Leda Gobbo de Freitas Bueno ◽  
Silvia Regina Lucas de Souza

O ambiente dentro dos galpões avícolas é um dos fatores primordiais para se conseguir bons índices zootécnicos e retornos financeiros. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar o ambiente térmico no interior do galpão de aves poedeiras em diferentes estações do ano na tentativa de proporcionar uma melhor relação ao bem-estar das aves. O estudo foi realizado no galpão de aves poedeiras na UNESP - campus de Dracena/SP. Foram distribuídos e aferidos em doze pontos equidistantes as principais variáveis bioclimáticas, como temperatura de globo negro, temperatura do ar, temperatura de bulbo seco, temperatura de bulbo úmido, temperatura de superfície de telhado, umidade relativa do ar e velocidade do vento. As medições foram feitas nas transições entre as estações do inverno e primavera, primavera e verão e verão e outono, com o intuito de observar qual é a melhor estação do ano em que as aves apresentam um melhor conforto térmico dentro das instalações avícolas. As médias das variáveis bioclimáticas foram comparadas utilizando o teste estatístico Tukey (95%) através do software Statigrafics Centurion, e o software de superfície SURFER para o mapeamento do aviário. Os resultados indicaram que a transição entre inverno e primavera apresentou melhores valores com relação ao conforto térmico dentro do galpão, possibilitando um melhor bem-estar das aves e consequentemente melhor desempenho e retorno financeiro.PALAVRAS-CHAVES: Ambiência, Aquecimento Global, Ondas De Calor, Zootecnia De Precisão. MAPPING BIOCLIMATIC CONTOUR OF A POULTRY SHED IN A TROPICAL REGION IN THE CITY OF DRACENA/SPABSTRACT: The environment inside poultry houses is one of the main factors to achieve good zootechnical indexes and financial returns. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the thermal environment inside the shed of laying hens in different seasons of the year in an attempt to provide a better relation to the welfare of birds. The study was carried out in the poultry shed at UNESP campus in Dracena / SP. The main bioclimatic variables, such as black globe temperature, air temperature, dry bulb temperature, wet bulb temperature, roof surface temperature, relative air humidity and wind speed were distributed and measured at twelve equidistant points. The measurements were taken at the transition between the seasons of winter and spring, spring and summer and summer and fall, in order to obtain the best season of the year in which the birds can obtain better thermal comfort inside the poultry facilities. The averages of the bioclimatic variables were compared using the Tukey statistical test (95%) using the Statigrafics Centurion software, where the SURFER surface software was used to map the aviary. The results indicated that the transition between winter and spring presented better values with respect to thermal comfort inside the shed, allowing a better welfare of the birds and consequently better performance and financial return.KEYWORDS: Environment, Global Warming, Heatwaves, Precision Poultry Production.


2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongxin Xie ◽  
Sauchung Fu ◽  
Chili Wu ◽  
Christopher Y.H. Chao

Since the concept of personalized ventilation was introduced in the late 1990s, many studies on thermal comfort have been conducted and a number of parameters identified. In this research, the influence of three parameters, the airflow speed, airflow fluctuating period and a parameter which has drawn less attention in previous studies – the airflow distance between the human subject and the nozzle of the personalized ventilation device on air movement perception, thermal sensation and thermal comfort – are studied. The combinations of fluctuating period and airflow amplitude were selected based on the Power Spectrum Density method. Then 25 human subjects participated in the thermal comfort experiment, each of them underwent 54 tests of different experimental conditions and expressed their thermal feelings by completing the survey questionnaire. Our findings showed that a longer airflow distance could lead to cooler thermal sensation, but not cause any difference in thermal comfort. Changing the fluctuating period of the sinusoidal airflow from 10 s to 60 s did not cause an influence on thermal sensation, but a shorter fluctuating period could result in a higher air movement perception. When dealing with thermal comfort issues, a joint effect with airflow speed and fluctuating period occurs and this should also be considered.


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