Field investigation on thermal comfort of passengers in an airport terminal in the severe cold zone of China

Abstract

Numerous airport terminals are being constructed in China. However, the current Chinese standards do not specify an indoor comfort zone for airport terminals. Therefore, this study aims to understand the thermal comfort demand of passengers and provide references for designing an indoor thermal environment in airport terminals. We selected typical periods in May 2019, August 2019, and January 2020 to conduct a thermal comfort field study in an airport terminal in the severe cold zone of China. 640 valid questionnaires were collected in the departure lounge during different seasons, and 625 valid questionnaires from different functional zones during winter were analysed. The neutral Top of passengers was 25.6 °C, 23.7 °C, and 17.7 °C in the departure lounge in summer, transition season, and winter, respectively. The 80% and 90% acceptability ranges of passengers in the departure lounge in transition season and winter were wider than in summer, indicating that passengers were easily adaptable to the indoor environment. Differences are observed in the thermal comfort demands of passengers with different dwell times. Because of the difference in metabolic rates, the preferred temperature in the baggage reclaim (16.2 °C) was lower than in the check-in hall and departure lounge (20.3 °C and 20.7 °C, respectively) during winter. This indicates that different design parameters should be developed according to the characteristics of the metabolic rate and dwell time in different functional zones. The findings from this study show excellent energy-saving potential in airport terminals in winter.