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Computer prediction of human thermoregulatory and temperature responses to a wide range of environmental conditions

journal contribution
posted on 2015-11-10, 13:34 authored by Dusan Fiala, Kevin LomasKevin Lomas, Martin Strohrer
A mathematical model for predicting human thermal and regulatory responses in cold, cool, neutral, warm, and hot environments has been developed and validated. The multi-segmental passive system, which models the dynamic heat transport within the body and the heat exchange between body parts and the environment, is discussed elsewhere. This paper is concerned with the development of the active system, which simulates the regulatory responses of shivering, sweating, and peripheral vasomotion of unacclimatised subjects. Following a comprehensive literature review, 26 independent experiments were selected that were designed to provoke each of these responses in different circumstances. Regression analysis revealed that skin and head core temperature affect regulatory responses in a non-linear fashion. A further signal, i.e. the rate of change of the mean skin temperature weighted by the skin temperature error signal, was identified as governing the dynamics of thermoregulatory processes in the cold. Verification and validation work was carried out using experimental data obtained from 90 exposures covering a range of steady and transient ambient temperatures between 5°C and 50°C and exercise intensities between 46 W/m2 and 600 W/m2. Good general agreement with measured data was obtained for regulatory responses, internal temperatures, and the mean and local skin temperatures of unacclimatised humans for the whole spectrum of climatic conditions and for different activity levels.

History

School

  • Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering

Published in

Int Journal of Biometeorology (Int Soc B)

Volume

45

Issue

143-159

Pages

143 - 159

Citation

FIALA, D., LOMAS, K.J. and STROHRER, M., 2001. Computer prediction of human thermoregulatory and temperature responses to a wide range of environmental conditions. International Journal of Biometeorology, 45 (3), pp. 143 - 159.

Publisher

Springer / © ISB

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2001

Notes

This article is closed access, it was published in the International Journal of Biometeorology [Springer / © ISB]. The definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s004840100099

ISSN

0020-7128

Language

  • en