Using CFD Technology to Simulate a Model of Human Thermoregulation in the Stable Temperature Environment

Abstract

A coupling system was developed in the present study to simulate the heat transfer and physiological responses of the unclothed human body in hot and cold environments. This system included a computational thermal manikin controlled by a multi-node thermal model, which could dynamically respond to the environmental conditions. The computational thermal manikin was employed to determine the heat transfer between the human body and ambient environment as well as heat transfer coefficients at each body segment. The CFD simulation was then coupled with a multi-node thermal model to predict the heat transfer and human physiological responses in real time. The performance of coupling system was examined by comparing the simulated skin temperatures with the published measurements from human trials in hot and cold environments. The coupling system reasonably predicted the skin temperatures at local body segments with the maximum discrepancies between the observed values and simulated ones no more than 1.0 °C.