The correlation between the overall thermal comfort, the overall thermal sensation and the local thermal comfort in non-uniform environments with local cooling

Abstract

The evaluation of overall thermal comfort in non-uniform thermal environments has not been fully clarified; it was therefore studied in this paper. For this aim, a series of experiments were conducted under non-uniform thermal environments with local cooling, where subjects’ thermal responses were surveyed by questionnaires. The correlations between the overall thermal comfort, the overall thermal sensation and the local thermal comfort were explored under both steady and unsteady states. As well, the relationship between the overall thermal comfort and the local thermal comfort was examined under steady-state conditions. The results indicated that the overall thermal comfort was dependent on the overall thermal sensation and also on the local thermal comfort at the body parts exposed to local cooling, whether in steady or transient states. Considering the two factors, the overall thermal comfort models were proposed for steady and unsteady states. Also, the overall thermal comfort was approximated by the average of the maximum and minimum local thermal comfort under steady states. Another overall thermal comfort model was therefore proposed. The two overall thermal comfort models for the steady state were verified by experimental results.