Effects of ambient temperature, airspeed, and wind direction on heat transfer coefficient for the human body by means of manikin experiments and CFD analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to confirm the effect of ambient temperature, airspeed, and wind direction on the heat transfer around the human body. A fixed surface temperature (33 °C) thermal manikin (TM) with 16 segments was employed. First, the manikin was placed in a climate chamber with ambient temperatures of 20 °C, 24 °C, and 28 °C, at airspeeds of less than 0.1 m/s to represent calm condition. Higher ambient temperatures led to a decrease in the convective heat transfer coefficient. The convective heat transfer coefficients for the sitting posture were higher than those of the standing posture. The same TM was then put in a wind tunnel with airspeeds ranging from 0.25 m/s to 1.4 m/s to represent forced convection. The TM was set to face upwind, downwind, and perpendicular to the wind (i.e., its right side facing the wind). Regression models for the convective heat transfer coefficient and airspeed for different wind directions and postures were derived. In contrast to the calm condition, the convective heat transfer coefficients for the sitting posture were lower than those for the standing posture. The convective heat transfer coefficients for the standing posture were largest when the TM was facing downwind, and smallest when the right side of the TM was facing the wind. To verify the results of the experiment, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed with conditions matching those of the experiment by using a computational TM with the same shape as that used in the experiment. The boundary conditions of the CFD analysis were set from the experiment. The CFD analysis results were consistent with the experimental data.