Abstract
Two kinds of wearable cooling devices were evaluated for their cooling effect by a thermal manikin. All measurements were conducted in a climatic chamber. The cooling fans worked almost 3 h. Their cooling effect was large at the head and had little effects on other parts of the manikin. They decreased the insulation of a typical clothing ensemble of outdoor workers in construction industries from 0.75 clo to 0.48 clo. The cooling vest for heat protective clothing mainly worked on the trunk. It did not have enough effect nor had steady cooling effect. But the vest worked as direct cooling device for the trunk. The effect of the fans to Standard Effective Temperature (SET) is evaluated by simulation. The difference of SETs between the case of the typical ensemble and the case with the cooling fans at 35 °C of the surrounding environment is 2.6 °C. The lower the surrounding temperature is, the larger the difference between SETs of different clothing insulation value is.
Highlights
This paper aims to investigate the cooling effect of two wearable cooling devices for construction industry by a thermal manikin
This study evaluates the nominal clothing insulation of FANS
Two kinds of wearable cooling devices were evaluated for their cooling effect by a thermal manikin in the view point of utilization for construction industry
Summary
It is hot and humid in summer, but cold and dry in winter around the central part of it. There are many cases of heatstroke in summer due to the climatic condition, which leads to management for environmental condition by WBGT and education on health condition for outdoor workers (The ministry of health, labour and welfare of Japan, 2016). Workers in construction sites have to wear long-sleeve shirts, long-trousers and helmets especially for safety reason and there are many cases of heat stroke in summer. Chan and Yi (2016) summarized the current status of them It said that six parameters (ambient temperature, relative humidity, radiant temperature, air velocity, metabolic rate and clothing properties) had to be included to evaluate the heat stress but one of empirical indices, WBGT, was used most widely. It is pointed out that workers often disliked wearing those
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