Abstract
Different kinds of thermal indices have been applied in several decades as essential tools to investigate thermal perception, environmentally thermal conditions, occupant thermal risk, public health, tourist attractiveness, and urban climate. Physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) has been proved as a relatively wide applicable thermal indicator above other thermal indices. However, the current practical PET performs a slight variation influenced by changing the humidity and clothing insulation. The improvement of the PET has potentiality for further multi-application as a general and consistent standard to estimate thermal perception and tolerance for different studies. To achieve the above purpose, modified physiologically equivalent temperature (mPET) is proposed as an appropriate indicator according to the new structure and requirements of the thermally environmental ergonomics. The modifications to formulate the mPET are considerably interpreted in the principle of the heat transfer inside body, thermo-physiological model, clothing model, and human-environmental interaction in this study. Specifically, the mPET-model has adopted a semi-steady-state approach to calculate an equivalent temperature refer to an indoor condition as the mPET. Finally, the sensitivity test of the biometeorological variables and clothing impact proves that the mPET has better performance on the humidity and clothing insulation than the original PET.
Highlights
As a thermal index, the physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) [1,2] is one of the outstandingly and applicably rational indicators [3]
The original PET has been evident as a widely applicable thermal index compared to the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) [10,11], SET* [12,13,14] and Perceived Temperature (PT) [19,20]
This article delivers the target study fields, the thermo-regulatory model based on a multiple-segment physiological model, the multi-layer clothing model associate to the multiple-segments physiological model, and the evaluation function for equivalent temperature based on a semi-energy-equilibrium state of the modified physiologically equivalent temperature (mPET)-model
Summary
The physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) [1,2] is one of the outstandingly and applicably rational indicators [3]. PMV has been proposed as the first rational thermal indicator which can consider the heat transfer from body core to body shell, to clothing node, and to the environments. This thermo-physiological model is known as a two-nodes cylinder body model [10,11]. The performances of SET* are violently sensitive to wind speed in cold conditions and slightly sensitive to mean radiant temperature (Tmrt ) in warm conditions Another peculiarity of SET* is adjustment of subject’s clothing behavior with metabolic rate as a standardization. Brief comparisons of the original PET and mPET are shown respectively according to thermo-environmental variables and clothing insulation in the manuscript
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
