Comfort Aspects Research Articles

Preferences for Indoor Environmental and Social Comfort of Outpatient Staff during the COVID-19 Pandemic, an Explanatory Study.

While the pressure on hospital workers keeps growing, they are generally more dissatisfied with their comfort than other occupants in hospitals or offices. To better understand the comfort of outpatient workers in hospitals, clusters for preferences and perceptions of the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and social comfort were identified in a previous study before the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This qualitative study explains the outpatient workers’ main preferences for comfort during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured interviews and photo-elicitation were used. Contextual changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic were included. The questions in the interviews were based on the characteristics of the profiles, corresponding with the clusters. The data were analyzed with content analysis according to the steps defined by Gioia. Seventeen outpatient workers who had been part of the previous study participated. For some outpatient workers differentiation of preferences was illogical due to interrelations and equal importance of the comfort aspects. The main changes in perceptions of comfort due to the pandemic were worries about the indoor air quality and impoverished interaction. Because the occupants’ preferences for comfort can change over time, it was suggested that further development of occupant profiles needs to accommodate changes.

Station facilities and noise assessment: A multilevel analysis on light rail train stations

Noise is one of the most frequent consequences of traffic. Public transportation systems, such as the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) authority provides various modes of transportation. Even though the availability of commuting service for the public is a boon to communities, mass transit systems are potential sources of excessive sound levels in daily urban life. This article examines the nexus between the transit station facilities of light rail train (LRT) stations and noise implications at both station and neighborhood scales by studying selected LRT stations. A multilevel linear analysis was conducted to understand the degree of train station amenities and neighborhood characteristics that affect sound levels. Using a type II sound pressure level (SPL)meter, sound measurements were obtained during the weekdays and weekends over several weeks. Upon examining the station amenities, and built environment and sociodemographic characteristics of the neighborhood, findings of this comprehensive research reveal significant implications for sound levels. Stations with ticket vending machines and informative message boards include a higher degree of significance on SPLs, while shelters, crew rooms, bike lockers, restrooms, and windshields are significantly and negatively associated with the noise levels. Additionally, neighborhoods with dense roads, higher speed limits, more neighborhood facilities, and a higher number of transit routes have an increased likelihood of noise levels. Recommendations include creating transformative policies for implementation, and approaches addressing noise for transit authorities, transportation engineers, and planners are presented. Planning and engineering aspects of comfort, aesthetics, safety, and public health, as train stations are daily use spaces for commuters and surrounding communities, should also be considered.

PENILAIAN PRODUK KANCING BERBENTUK HURUF DENGAN BAHAN DASAR LIMBAH STYROFOAM

The research aims to find out the assessment of Styrofoam Letter-Shaped Button Products full colour theme, Rainbow inspiration source, style and look sporty off beat which is assessed based on product quality theory and design element theory and design principles. Descriptive qualitative research methods. By measuring based on aspects of comfort, benefits, the shape of the center of attention color and the element of design. Valued by 5 panelists. The results of the button accessories research has a design element of color shape texture was quite good. And can be used as a button for children's clothing. But in performance it takes a more perfect improvement process.

PENILAIAN PRODUK KANCING BERBENTUK HURUF DENGAN BAHAN DASAR LIMBAH STYROFOAM

The research aims to find out the assessment of Styrofoam Letter-Shaped Button Products full colour theme, Rainbow inspiration source, style and look sporty off beat which is assessed based on product quality theory and design element theory and design principles. Descriptive qualitative research methods. By measuring based on aspects of comfort, benefits, the shape of the center of attention color and the element of design. Valued by 5 panelists. The results of the button accessories research has a design element of color shape texture was quite good. And can be used as a button for children's clothing. But in performance it takes a more perfect improvement process.

Control Strategies for Daylight and Artificial Lighting in Office Buildings—A Bibliometrically Assisted Review

A significant proportion of the total energy consumption in office buildings is attributable to lighting. Enhancements in energy efficiency are currently achieved through strategies to reduce artificial lighting by intelligent daylight utilization. Control strategies in the field of daylighting and artificial lighting are mostly rule-based and focus either on comfort aspects or energy objectives. This paper aims to provide an overview of published scientific literature on enhanced control strategies, in which new control approaches are critically analysed regarding the fulfilment of energy efficiency targets and comfort criteria simultaneously. For this purpose, subject-specific review articles from the period between 2015 and 2020 and their research sources from as far back as 1978 are analysed. Results show clearly that building controls increasingly need to address multiple trades to achieve a maximum improvement in user comfort and energy efficiency. User acceptance can be highlighted as a decisive factor in achieving targeted system efficiencies, which are highly determined by the ability of active user interaction in the automatic control system. The future trend is moving towards decentralized control concepts including appropriate occupancy detection and space zoning. Simulation-based controls and learning systems are identified as appropriate methods that can play a decisive role in reducing building energy demand through integral control concepts.

A review on key challenges in intelligent vehicles: Safety and driver‐oriented features

The huge advantages of intelligent vehicles (IVs) in improving road safety and operating efficiency have become a research focus in the industry. IVs have made significant progress in recent years, but it is still face great challenges in order to be accepted by users on a large scale. In this regard, the authors propose that the research of IVs can be developed along the lines of safety, comfort and economy, gradually overcoming existing dilemmas. First of all, security is the most basic requirement of IVs. The authors sort out the key technologies and challenges of the basic architecture of IVs, and propose existing attack and defences strategies for IVs information security technology. Secondly, comfort is more about people's subjective feelings. From two aspects of physiological comfort and psychological comfort, the paper studies the anthropomorphic decision-making to overcome the mechanized speed control, human computer interaction design, personalized driving style and ethical decision-making methods. Then, aiming at the micro- and macro-levels of economy, it outlines technologies such as economic driving behavioural, collaborative control of people, vehicles and roads and IVs sharing. Finally, the authors summarized the challenges and future development directions in the three stages of IVs development.

A study of sound pressure level (SPL) inside the truck cabin for new acoustic materials: An experimental and FEA approach

This study discusses the acoustic property variations by introducing new absorption materials. An experimental set up established to simulate virtually as well as experimentally with various biodegradable, biocompatible and naturally absorbable materials for a truck cabin of carrier capacity 3.5Tonnes. The materials were embedded on the sidewall and base of the cabin covering the entire cabin not leaving any air pockets. Experimental and simulation study was carried out for six materials and in the later part a combination of these materials also carried out to see through the possible optimal cases providing due Weightage to cost and weight. A sound quality index study being made to see with each case of material how the sound pressure level affects the rider and the subordinates seating in a cabin. A detailed simulation study carried out to understand the material behavioral characteristics along with convergence study using ANSYS Workbench. The exhaustive work emphasis on percentage error study with simulation and experimental work and proposes an optimal material from sound pressure level and rider comfort aspects.

Regression forecasting of ‘neutral’ adaptive thermal comfort: A field study investigation in the south-eastern Mediterranean climate of Cyprus

Numerous field studies have found that occupants' thermal comfort varies with local climate conditions. However, there is no generally recommended acceptable comfort range for multifamily residential buildings, nor are there specific adaptive thermal comfort prediction methods, particularly in South-eastern Mediterranean countries. We investigated an in-vivo experience of social householders' thermal sensation votes to predict individual aspects of adaptive thermal comfort and influences on its validity in purpose built residential tower blocks of a post-war social housing estate in Famagusta, Cyprus. We conducted field studies, which included on-site questionnaire surveys, environmental monitoring and in-situ physical measurements, on 36 base-case representative archetype buildings over 288 flats where the weather is subtropical (Csa) and partly semi-arid (Bsh). 118 flats were successfully recruited. A moderate correlation was found between the occupants' thermal sensation and the indoor air temperature (r = 0.215, p < 0.05), while a negative moderate correlation was found with the outdoor air temperature (r = −0.325, p < 0.01). The occupants' thermal sensation vote indicated that the ‘neutral’ temperature was 28.5 °C, and the upper limit of the comfort range in warm indoor air temperature conditions was 31.5 °C. This suggests that, in hot and dry climates in which thermally uncomfortable indoor environments occur, particularly in summer, occupants appear to tolerate a warmer condition than at other high and medium altitudes. The outcome of this study contributes to the development of the ASHRAE Global Thermal Comfort Database II where there is not any data available for the Cypriot context.

Research on Climate Adaptation Design Strategy Driven by Spatial Performance from the Perspective of Land-Based Rationalism: Taking the Academic Complex Project in Central School of Communist Youth League of China as an Example

With the rapid urban development, the construction of public buildings in China has been greatly promoted, and the problem of large energy consumption of public buildings has also become increasingly prominent, with a stronger demand for close combination of public buildings and passive design. Based on the characteristics of theater space, this paper mainly studies the passive design method of large space, excellently integrates climate adaptability design technology with passive building design strategy, and explores the optimal passive design scheme for theater buildings, by taking the academic complex project in Central School of Communist Youth League of China as an example, with passive priority and active optimization for the principle from the aspects of climate adaptation and indoor environment comfort.

Integrated impacts of building height and upstream building on pedestrian comfort around ideal lift-up buildings in a weak wind environment

Unfavorable wind comfort and intense thermal discomfort are degrading pedestrian comfort in high-density cities. The lift-up design has proved to be a promising way to improve wind comfort and thermal comfort around buildings. Previous studies have identified building height as a crucial factor influencing wind comfort around lift-up buildings. However, the correlation between building height and wind comfort has not been fully understood yet and few parametric studies have been focused on thermal comfort. This study thereby aims to evaluate the integrated effects of building height and upstream building on pedestrian comfort around lift-up buildings from aspects of wind comfort and thermal comfort. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed to reproduce mean flow fields around single building models and double building models. An integrated method combining on-site observation data and CFD simulation results was employed to calculate physiological equivalent temperatures. The findings show that increasing building height, being under a diverging flow, removing upstream buildings, and making the target building taller or shorter than the upstream building can improve wind comfort in the lift-up area. However, their effects on thermal comfort vary seasonally. For improving wind comfort and thermal comfort in the podium, making the target building taller or shorter than the upstream building or under a diverging flow is beneficial; but increasing building height and removing upstream buildings are not necessarily favorable. The outcome can provide some inspiration for city planners to improve pedestrian comfort in high-density cities.

A thermal and acoustic co-simulation method for the multi-domain optimization of nearly zero energy buildings

In the last years, the Nearly Zero Energy Building (or NZEB) concept has become one of the main targets to drive the built environment towards a sustainable future. Advanced methodologies and tools have been developed to support the complex NZEB design problem considering multiple objectives and the renovated interest for building occupants’ wellbeing has highlighted the need for integrating energy and comfort aspects for a holistic vision of the future NZEB. This work intends to advance in the ongoing discussion about comfort-driven NZEB design and develop a new multi-tool multi-objective simulation-based optimization methodology to integrate energy, cost and acoustic performance in the search for the NZEB optimal design. The proposed approach relies on the coupling between an energy model in TRNSYS®, a sound insulation model developed in Matlab® and the PSO algorithm to drive the optimization through the GenOpt® tool. After theoretical elaboration of the so-defined optimization problem, the method was applied to a French single-family case study. The applied methodology identifies several non-obvious solutions that are near-optimal for all the three objectives and shows that the traditional cost-optimized NZEB design would lead to low sound insulation performance, revealing the potential for a full exploitation of synergies between thermal and acoustic domains in high-performance buildings, reinforcing the need for further investigation in the field.

Productivity, quality and comfort of Siro spun wool-cotton khadi fabrics

The productivity, quality and comfort aspects of Siro spun wool-cotton blended Khadi fabrics are reported in this experimental research. The technology of Siro spun yarn is also successfully introduced in New Modal (NM) Charkha for producing woolen Khadi Siro yarn. This system produces suitable two strands yarn of wool with higher productivity than conventional NM charkha. The yarns of Australian Merino (AM) and JK crossbred (JKC) wool mixes in different proportions using modified Siro Charkha were prepared. The fabrics were woven using AM-JKC mixed Siro spun yarn as a weft and wool-cotton blended spun yarn as a warp by using the Handloom weaving machine. The physical, low-stress mechanical and comfort properties of wool-cotton Siro fabrics were studied. Siro spun yarn of AM: JKC (75:25) was bulkier, more even with lower imperfections and hairiness. The tenacity and elongation of Siro spun yarns have an increasing trend with the increasing proportion of Australian Merino wool in the wool-mix. The thickness before and after the steam press of fabrics has significant difference. The blending of cotton with wool in the fabric significantly reduced the relaxation shrinkage in the warp direction, which in turn produced the more dimensionally stable fabric. The comfort in terms of thermal and air-permeability properties significantly affected with fibre composition in warp and weft yarns.

Observation of Thermal Comfort Standarts at The Gegerkalong KPAD Mosque, Bandung

Thermal comfort is a comfort that relates to the room’s temperature conditions such as heat and cold which is manifested from the sensor on the skin and conveyed to the brain. So, the body can adjust the temperature to the surrounding environment. According to the American Standard of ASHRAE 55 of 2009, The purpose of this study is to analyze the suitability of the thermal comfort standard at the At-Taqwa Mosque of the GegerKalong KPAD. The research is conducted by measuring the thermal comfort at the At-Taqwa Mosque. It uses an anemometer measurement tool. The aspects of thermal comfort measured are wind speed, temperature, and relative humidity. The measurement results show that the thermal comfort at the At-Taqwa Mosque is still below the standard. The results of this measurement are simulated on three digital software which are named Sunhour, Flowdesign, and CBE Thermal Comfort. The results of the simulations on these three software show the thermal comfort at the At-Taqwa Mosque doesn’t approve to standard of ASHRAE 55 of 2009 because the highest temperature is on the western exterior area with 33.5 C and the lowest is on the eastern interior area with 23.6 C.

Thermal Comfort in East Campus Center of ITB Bandung

The campus center is the building regarded as the center of student activities. It’s the typical building commonly found on campuses. The building is specifically intended for the students to entertain and socialize themselves. The building can also function as the center for small-scale conference conferences; the meeting is leased to student communities and local organizations. By various activities taking place in the building, it’s demanded to meet the need for the users’ thermal comfort to realize all of their programs following their objectives respectively. The study on ITB Campus Center Building aims to encourage students to be familiar with the influence of the building orientation, dimensions, shape, material, configuration, and the opening type that affect the space’s air circulation. This research used a quantitative descriptive method approach by measuring the temperature and humidity through the gauge for temperature and humidity and an anemometer for wind speed. It identifies the study object’s thermal comfort based on the PMV Index in the CBE Thermal Comfort Tools. And from the results of our research, it can be concluded that the building has fulfilled most aspects of thermal comfort.

PENERAPAN KONSEP ARSITEKTUR INDUSTRIAL PADA BANGUNAN HOTEL (STUDI KASUS: THE SOMOS HOTEL, KOLOMBIA)

Industrial development in a country usually contributes to its national economy. Tourism as an industrial sector also contributes to increasing foreign exchange for the country. A building that is closely related to the tourism industry is a hotel. In general, hotel buildings use a concept that prioritizes comfort factors, such as: natural colors, cozy, neat, and others. Apart from this habit, some hotels use industrial concepts that prioritize functional and efficient aspects, such as: the use of unfinishing materials and utilities that are left as they are so that it gives the impression of sacrificing the comfort aspects commonly applied to hotel buildings. Therefore, this study aims to find out how to apply industrial concepts that are suitable for hotel buildings. This study uses a qualitative method with a descriptive approach. The study uses a case study on the same building and concept. Because hotels that use this concept are rarely found in Indonesia, the case study used is The Somos Hotel in Colombia. From this research, the conclusion is that the application of industrial concepts cannot be applied to all rooms in the hotel. The industrial concept in hotel buildings uses geometric shapes and firm lines, natural colors and monochrome colors, honesty in the use of materials and exposure to utility systems in public spaces.

Quality analysis of non-medical fabric in terms of convenience, air permeability and sterilization

In the current Covid-19 era, personal protective equipment (PPE) is difficult to find and very much needed by medical personnel in service. People also need PPE to maintain health. Mask is one of the PPEs that is difficult to find and buy. Mostly, pharmacies run out of it and if there is any, the price goes up highly. UNNES, as a university, formed a COVID-19 Task Force during the Covid-19 period to help prevent the disease spread in the internal campus community. The UNNES Covid-19 Task Force prepared 3000 hand sanitizers and disinfectants, and 5100 masks for lecturers and staff. Fashion Design Major of Home Economics Department of Engineering Faculty of UNNES is appointed by the university to design and produce cloth masks to be distributed to lecturers and educational staff. The production of these UNNES non-medical masks went viral on social media and was even covered by a famous social media account named Lambe Turah. With various limitations, they produced 2-layer masks with pleated design on the outer side and a pocket on the inside that can be filled with a sheet of tissue as a filter. In addition, they also produced 2-layer cloth masks. A total of 4500 masks have been distributed to lecturers and staff for use. Moreover, there are 600 more masks that still need to be studied from the aspect of function, comfort and aesthetic and need to be tested in laboratory, particularly in the aspect of dust, microbes and air, as well as sterilization. Based on the above conditions, it is necessary to conduct research related to the analysis of mask quality developed and produced by Home Economics Department of Engineering Faculty of UNNES during the Covid-19 period. This study aims to describe the quality of cloth masks from the aspect of comfort and medical, such as the mask permeability and sterilization. The research approach was a survey based on user evaluation and experimentation through laboratory tests. The survey used a questionnaire via Google form to reveal the assessment of masks from the aspect of comfort. Experiments were carried out through sample tests for air permeability and sterilization in the health laboratory of PT Sucofindo, Semarang. The result of the research with respondents from lecturers and educational staff showed that the masks that had a very high quality is 50.71%; the ones with high quality is 37.14%; those which are moderate in quality is 3.51 and 0.71 had low quality. The laboratory test result of the UNNES non-medical mask based on the air permeability aspect showed that it had low air absorption because when it was tested using fire blow test, the fire did not go out. The sterility test results for non-medical cloth masks showed that they were not yet sterile. Non-medical masks already have very good quality in terms of comfort, function and aesthetic as well as low air absorption so that they are very useful for lecturers and staff to maintain health from the escalating Covid -19 pandemic. New non-medical cloth mask products are not sterile. Therefore, a thorough clean-up is required before using.

Thermal Control Processes by Deterministic and Network-Based Models for Energy Use and Control Accuracy in a Building Space

Various control approaches for building thermal controls have been studied to improve the energy use which determines a large part of the spatial thermal quality. This research compares the performance of deterministic models and a network-based model to examine the aspects of both energy consumption and thermal comfort. The single-switch deterministic model immediately responds to indoor thermal conditions, but the network-based model sends better-fit signals derived from learned data reflecting seven different climate conditions. As a result, the network-based model improves the thermal comfort level by about 6.1% to 9.4% and the energy efficiency by about 1.8% to 39.5% as compared to a thermostat and a fuzzy model. In the case of a specific weather condition, it can be confirmed that the process of finding efficient control values based on the network-based learning algorithm is more efficient than the conventional deterministic models.

Regular and temporary occupants’ perceptions of satisfaction in tertiary education buildings

There is little knowledge about occupants’ satisfaction when diverse end users coexist in the same building. This paper presents the results of a survey administered to 1013 occupants in 43 academic buildings in Spain, with the aim to reveal the perception of the indoor environmental quality and workplace ergonomics of both lecturers and students. The results revealed that light adequacy, cleanliness and acoustics in classrooms are perceived differently by lecturers and students. Results also revealed no gender differences in satisfaction with all aspects of comfort in classrooms. However, in offices, air quality, thermal sensation in winter and adequacy of space were perceived differently by male and female. The findings will be of interest for tertiary building maintenance, design teams and ergonomists to enhance comfort in both groups of end users. Practitioner Summary: There are no reported studies on how groups of occupants (regular and temporary) perceive comfort in relevant aspects such as acoustics, lighting, space adequacy, cleanliness, and ergonomics. The survey results with 1013 occupants revealed that regular users tend to be less satisfied than temporary users in rooms where they cohabit. Abbreviations: POE: post-occupancy evaluation; HVAC: heating, ventilation and air conditioning; AQ: air quality; IEQ: indoor environmental quality; TS: thermal sensation

An Evaluation Method of Mode Switching Quality for Double-Belt Continuously Variable Transmission

In order to improve the transmission efficiency and carrying capacity of conventional single-belt continuously variable transmission (CVT), one new type of dual-belt CVT is proposed in this paper. Under the situation that this new dual-belt CVT should be switched between single- and dual-belt modes frequently according to driver’s intention and road conditions, so five objective evaluation indexes of mode switching quality for the dual-belt CVT are proposed, considering the aspects of vehicle power, comfort, and transmission durability comprehensively. Then, the objective evaluation model of mode switching quality is established by the BP neural network optimized by the genetic algorithm. It is found that the prediction results are consistent with the subjective evaluation. After analyzing the influence of the selected five evaluation indexes on the prediction results, it is obvious that these five evaluation indexes of mode switching quality for dual-belt CVT are reasonable.

Building Performance Evaluation of a New Hospital Building in the UK: Balancing Indoor Environmental Quality and Energy Performance

Hospitals are controlled yet complex ecosystems which provide a therapeutic environment that promotes healing, wellbeing and work efficiency for patients and staff. As these buildings accommodate the sick and vulnerable, occupant wellbeing and good indoor environmental quality (IEQ) that deals with indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal comfort, lighting and acoustics are important objectives. As the specialist nature of hospital function demands highly controlled indoor environments, this makes them energy intensive buildings due to the complex and varying specifications for their functions and operations. This paper reports on a holistic building performance evaluation covering aspects of indoor air quality, thermal comfort, lighting, acoustics, and energy use. It assesses the performance issues and inter-relationships between IEQ and energy in a new building on a hospital campus in the city of Bristol, United Kingdom. The empirical evidence collated from this case study and the feedback received from the hospital staff help identify the endemic issues and constraints related to hospital buildings, such as the need for robust ventilation strategies in hospitals in urban areas that mitigate the effect of indoor and outdoor air pollution and ensuring the use of planned new low-carbon technologies. Whilst the existing guidelines for building design provide useful instructions for the protection of hospital buildings against ingress of particulate matter from outdoors, more advanced filtration strategies may be required to enact chemical reactions required to control the concentration levels of pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and benzene. Further lessons for improved performance in operation and maintenance of hospitals are highlighted. These include ensuring that the increasingly available metering and monitoring data in new buildings, through building management systems, is used for efficient and optimal building operations for better IEQ and energy management. Overall, the study highlights the need for an integrated and holistic approach to building performance to ensure that healthy environments are provided while energy efficiency targets are met.