Validation of the Stolwijk and Tanabe Human Thermoregulation Models for Predicting Local Skin Temperatures of Older People under Thermal Transient Conditions

Yin Tang,Hang Yu,Chaoen Li,Maohui Luo,Zi Wang

doi:10.3390/en13246524

Abstract

Human thermoregulation models can predict human thermal responses to evaluate thermal comfort and help create a healthy environment, while their applicability to older people has not been sufficiently validated. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of the Stolwijk model and the Tanabe model for predicting older people’s mean and local skin temperatures under thermal transient conditions. Eighteen healthy older people were recruited and exposed to transient environments including neutral (26 °C), low-temperature (23 and 21 °C), and high-temperature (29 and 32 °C) conditions. The local skin temperatures of the subjects were measured and compared to predictions of the Stolwijk model and the Tanabe model. The results revealed that the Stolwijk model and the Tanabe model could accurately predict the mean skin temperature of older people under neutral and high-temperature conditions, while their predictive accuracy declined under low-temperature conditions. Increased deviations were observed in the predictions of local skin temperatures for all conditions. This work attempted to provide an understanding of older people’s thermal response characteristics under transient conditions and to inspire the improvement of thermoregulation models for older people.

Highlights

IntroductionOlder people are more vulnerable to hot and cold stimuli because of their weak body functions [2,3]
Population aging represents a major challenge for modern society
The results show that the Stolwijk model could be reliable in the prediction of mean skin temperature for older people, and that the predictability of the Tanabe model appears to be limited during cold exposure

Summary

Introduction

Older people are more vulnerable to hot and cold stimuli because of their weak body functions [2,3]. They show less thermal sensitivity for environmental changes and react less efficiently to hot and cold exposure [4,5], which leads that older people would face more serious health risks and even death due to heat waves or cold weather [6,7]. The construction of a comfortable and healthy indoor environment for older people is a topic that has received substantial research attention [8,9,10]. Taking the Energies 2020, 13, 6524; doi:10.3390/en13246524 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies

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