Regulation of a human thermal environment by inverse method

Abstract

This work proposes a method for designing a human thermal environment. The aim is to determine the thermal surroundings (wall and air temperatures) of a complex enclosure that can provide a desired human thermal state. Such a mathematical process is called inverse modeling described by an ill-conditioned system of linear equations. This problem is regularized by means of the Tikhonov method. The system becomes nonlinear when convective phenomena are considered. The inverse analysis leads to optimal surrounding conditions that, within an acceptable error level, ensure both the temperature and heat flux required on the human body to maintain thermal comfort conditions. An application to driver in his car is presented.