Numerical simulation of an industrial worker route using thermal human body software

Abstract

Thermal comfort studies aim to identify the better thermal environment for human occupancy and these studies can be motivated by objective and subjective reasons. The evaluation of the thermal conditions to which the individuals are exposed, provides crucial information about how they feel and how satisfied they are within the environment. Such information could help managers and engineers to take actions in order to ensure the thermal comfort of people, protecting their health, and to design thermally efficient buildings to minimize energy waste. The human body is an active system that responds to a certain environmental input in different setting conditions. A thermal software for the human body models the heat and moisture exchange of a human body with the environment by a set of differential equations and it can predict the body and clothing temperatures and humidity felt by the body, which will influence the human comfort. The main purpose of this paper is to understand how an human body thermal software can be used to analyse the human response during an industrial task where different environment conditions are observed. Experimental data, obtained from a field investigation made in an industrial plant, have been used to define ambient temperature and humidity. Results indicate that the software can differentiate body parts concerning its thermal behaviour and the temperature at different parts of the body tend to the same behaviour with respect to different environmental conditions. The model proved to be reliable and comparative studies could be made in order to define the best route to achieve an industrial task.