Effects of local heating on thermal comfort of standing people in extremely cold environments

Abstract

Most snow games at the 2022 Winter Olympics will be held in Chongli, where the lowest temperature is predicted to reach −15 °C or even lower, according to the historical temperature data from the past ten years. Thus, audiences watching games in open-air venues might suffer from this extremely cold environment. In this study, basic analyses on the body thermal comfort of the standing people were conducted at a mean temperature of −13.8 °C in a cryogenic chamber, and the effectiveness of local heating measures for the feet, hands, and back that could be adopted to standing audience was evaluated. Eight male subjects participated in the experiment; subjective evaluations were performed, and the physiological parameters and energy consumption of the heating equipment were recorded. The results show that heating insoles (43.9–48.9 °C), heating railings with armrests (54 W, for two hands), and backrests (82 W) significantly improve the overall and local thermal comfort of the subjects.