A Field Investigation of the Average Indoor Thermal Comfort Parameters on the Railway Pantry Car Kitchen at the Different Cooking Period

Abstract

There are various kinds of literature available on thermal comfort in buildings, hospitals, industries, and others too in developed and developing countries. However, few pieces of literature are available on the kitchen environment like rural homes, restaurants, and hotels, but related to the kitchen environment of the railway pantry car is almost nill. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the average indoor thermal comfort parameters on the railway pantry car kitchen at a different cooking period. A total of 14 railway pantry cars included were this study in which six and eight pantry cars took in the summer and winter seasons, respectively, in 2018. In this research, with the help of a kestrel anemometer 4500, air temperature, relative humidity, and air velocity were measured. Although globe temperature measured by 6-inch black-globe thermometer. Descriptive analysis and Kruskal–Wallis tests performed were for the investigation using SPSS-16 software. A result of the descriptive analysis indicates that in both seasons, and the value average thermal comfort parameters were found maximum at lunch and snack preparation time. The outcomes of statistical analysis revealed that there is no significant difference between all thermal comfort parameters during the summer season at the cooking period. A significant difference was found between thermal comfort parameters during the cooking period in the winter season except for the parameters of relative humidity and air velocity. Furthermore, this result will help in the design intervention of the ventilation system and estimate the comfort temperature in the pantry car’s kitchen.