A 3D heat and moisture transfer model with radiation in clothing

Abstract

Clothing acts as a barrier for heat as well as vapor transport between skin and outside environment, and the heat and moisture transfer performance of clothing directly affects human body’s thermal physiological state and comfort sensation especially in hot conditions. For example, the fireman’s clothes with good heat and moisture transfer performance can maintain fireman’s safe and comfortable in danger. To accurately understand the heat and moisture transfer process and improve the thermal performance of clothing, in this paper, we propose a 3D heat and moisture transfer model of clothing in which the classical heat and moisture transfer mechanisms including the heat/moisture convection, conduction/diffusion as well as the condensation/evaporation are considered. Considering the heat radiation is the one of the most important heat dissipate mode, we are among the first to integrate the heat radiation into the 3D heat and moisture model, and employ Stefan–Boltzmann law to analyze it. Then the finite volume method is adopted to solve the coupled heat and moisture transfer equations. Numerical results show that better simulation results are obtained by our transfer model.