Comfort Conditioning in Accordance With Physiology of Human Body

IPASJ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering (IIJME)
Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJME/IIJME.htm

Email: editoriijme@ipasj.org
ISSN 2321-6441
A Publisher for Research Motivation........
Volume 3, Issue 5, May 2015
Comfort conditioning in Accordance with

Physiology of Human Body
Shiv Kumar Sharma1, Abhishek Jain2, Nitesh Singh Rajput3
1
Assistant Professor, Amity University Rajasthan, Jaipur
ABSTRACT
Thermal comfort of human body is governed by the laws of thermodynamics. Physiology of human body is affected
by the conditions of air, temperature and humidity. Metabolism and catabolism are to major physiological process
associated with human body. Human body behaves as a open thermodynamics system. Thermal comfort can be
defined as the condition of mental satisfaction with the surrounding thermal environment. This definition cannot be
expressed in terms of mathematical and physical parameters but easy to understand. It means thermal comfort is a
multivariable function like relative humidity, Pressure, Temperature, Density of air etc. From this research we have
concluded that existing empirical model present significant co-relation of building design and environmental
engineering. Despite that comfort model of Fanger based on thermal regulation and heat balance theories of
human body presents actual analysis that helps to understand the relation with the thermal variables responsible for
thermal comfort and thermal sensation of Human body. Thus, our analysis represents an improvement in human
thermal modeling and gives even more information about the environmental impact. In this research, main focus is
to study the impact of comfort conditioning on the physiology of human body in the city like Jaipur.
Keywords: Comfort, Physiology, Thermal Variable, Air
1. INTRODUCTION
According to the scientific theories of Human body acts as a thermal system employing various physiological process to
maintain a heat balance b/w the Heat produced by the body metabolism and Catabolism and heat loss by Human body
to the surrounding. Later on he established a linear relationship b/w activity level, sweat rate and mean skin
temperature. The Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) model stands among the most recognized thermal comfort models. It
was developed using principles of heat balance and experimental data collected in a controlled climate chamber under
steady state conditions. The adaptive model, on the other hand, was developed based on hundreds of field studies with
the idea that occupants dynamically interact with their environment.
Season
Table 1: Standard for human comfort in Rajasthan

Operative Temperature
Acceptable range
Winter
Summer
Rainy
18C
35C
25C
10-22C
30-42C
20-30C
Humidity
45%
28%
58%
Occupants control their thermal environment by means of clothing, operable windows, fans, personal heaters, and sun
shades. These two linear relation developed by him were substituted into heat balance equation to create a thermal
comfort equation in order to describe all possible combinations of the PMV input variables. Thermal comfort standards
use the PMV model to recommend acceptable thermal comfort conditions. Maintaining this standard of thermal
comfort for occupants of buildings or other enclosures is one of the important goals of HVAC (heating, ventilation, and
air conditioning) design engineers.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Sharma et al. 2012a have discussed that their research illustrates that for existing shopping centers, sustainability
performance varies considerably with age, location, size, weather centers are placed, covered, enclosed or open, and
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how they are managed. Only one Centre achieved an overall performance that was very good. Several followed just
below this level of performance, whilst the majority was bunched together around an average performance level and a
few performed poorly. In the work of Sharma et al. 2012b, Steam Power Plant of Gwalior Alcobrew Private Ltd.
Rairu was selected for the implementation of Total productive Maintenance. Data related to performance and
efficiency of different parts of Steam Power Plant was collected to find out the changes after the implementation of
TPM. Katic et al. 2014 has discussed that thermal comfort is an imperative indicator of building performance and
inline of that important for human wellbeing and health. With the constant demand for the energy reduction the
comfort of the occupants is compromised as well as their health. Thermoregulation model is a valuable tool used for
prediction of the thermal response of the human body under different environmental conditions.
An excellent review of comfort models and thermal adaptation appears in Brager and de Dear (1998). An earlier study
by Tham and Ullah (1993) modeled the comfort impact of fenestration on occupants of commercial buildings in
Singapore, a hot humid climate. Standard ASHRAE 55-1992 is based on the New Effective Temperature, ET*,
which uses a two-node model for the human body (skin and body core) and was developed by Gagge et al (1986).
According to its energetic definition, the state of thermal comfort is reached when the heat flows to and from the
human body is balanced and the skin temperature and sweat rate are within a comfort range. For this purpose, we use
the modified PMV (predicted mean vote) model. Since, in this analysis, the two-node model is used and special
attention is given to heat and mass transfer, we used a PMV* index as introduced by Gagge [1971] and Ye [2003]. In
comparison, ISO 7730 uses the PMV-PPD model of Fanger (1972) which is based on a human body energy balance and
combined with an empirical fit to thermal sensation. PMV is the Predicted Mean Vote (on a seven-point, cold-to-hot
sensation scale) for a large population of people exposed to a certain environment. PPD is the Percentage of People
Dissatisfied at each PMV value. PPD can be thought of as the probability that an average person will be dissatisfied
with his or her state of thermal comfort. Hoof et al. 2010 have discussed that in the last twenty years have witnessed
significant advances in the field of thermal comfort that build on the foundations laid the preceding century. The PMVmodel that was derived in the 1960s is still prescribed by thermal comfort standards as the most important method to
evaluate thermal comfort. The greatest advantage of the deterministic PMV-model is its wide application range. The
emergence of models of adaptive thermal comfort stems from research from the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st
century, and is on the threshold of wide-spread application. The current application range is still subject to debate,
which leads to the risk of use beyond the application thresholds.
3. THERMAL COMFORT AND PHYSIOLOGY

Besides being aesthetically pleasing, the human environment must provide light, air, and thermal comfort. In addition,
proper acoustics and hygiene are important. Air requirements and thermal comfort are covered in this chapter, while
illumination and acoustical considerations will be presented in later chapters. Comfort is best defined as the absence of
discomfort. People feel uncomfortable when they are too hot or too cold, or when the air is odorous and stale. Positive
comfort conditions are those that do not distract by causing unpleasant sensations of temperature, drafts, humidity, or
other aspects of the environment. Ideally, in a properly conditioned space, people should not be aware of equipment
noise, heat, or air motion.
The feeling of comfortor, more accurately, discomfort is based on a network of sense organs: the eyes, ears, nose,
tactile sensors, heat sensors, and brain. Thermal comfort is that state of mind that is satisfied with the thermal
environment; it is thus the condition of minimal stimulation of the skins heat sensors and of the heat-sensing portion
of the brain. The environmental conditions conducive to thermal comfort are not absolute, but rather vary with the
individuals metabolism, the nature of the activity engaged in, and the bodys ability to adjust to a wider or narrower
range of ambient. For comfort and efficiency, the human body requires a fairly narrow range of environmental
conditions compared with the full scope of those found in nature. The factors that affect humans pleasantly or adversely
include:
Ambient temperature
Radiant temperatures
Specific Humidity of Air
Air turbulence
Sound intensity
Light
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Fig. 1 Comfort Zone

Out of these, the first four relate to thermal interactions between people and their immediate environment. In order to
illustrate how thermal interactions affect human comfort, the explanation below describes the body temperature control
mechanisms and how environmental conditions affect them. Comfort zone for human comfort is shown in fig.
The human body is essentially a constant-temperature device. Heat is continuously produced by bodily processes and
dissipated in an automatically regulated manner to maintain the body temperature at its correct level despite variations
in ambient conditions. In terms of physiology, the experience of comfort is the achievement of thermal equilibrium with
the minimum amount of body regulation. The human body normally rejects heat to the environment using evaporative
cooling (sweating) and the heat transfer mechanisms of radiation, convection, and conduction .The relative roles of
these heat transfer mechanisms are determined by the individuals metabolism, clothing, and activity level, as well as
by the surrounding environmental conditions of radiation, humidity, air temperature, and air motion. The acceptable
value of each of these features is not fixed, but can vary in conjunction with one or more of the others. It is possible for
the body to vary its own balance of losses, for example, through increased sweating; or the insulating value of the
clothing worn can be varied to a limited degree to compensate for conditions beyond the bodys ability to make its own
adequate adjustment. The comfort of a given individual is affected by many variables. Health, age, activity, clothing,
gender, food, and acclimatization are all determining factors of the comfort conditions for any particular person. Since
these factors will not be identical for all people, room conditions are provided under which a majority of the expected
occupants will feel comfortable. In addition to its thermal climate, the air quality of each indoor environment affects the
sense of comfort. Air may contain a variety of possible contaminants that may or may not be harmful to human
occupants. Along with possible toxicity, contaminants can impart odors to the space, and the toxicity and odor intensity
are often related to the concentration of impurities. To reduce health hazards and eliminate objectionable odors,
concentrations of impurities are controlled either by dilution from outside air ventilation or by treatment of the air in an
air conditioning system, or by both. Proper fresh air distribution throughout a space is important for mixing the air in
order to achieve acceptable overall quality, and for keeping the air steadily moving around the occupants to carry away
heat, moisture, and odors generated by them. To define the thermal comfort conditions of a climate it must be given
some characteristic parameters of the environment and its occupants. These parameters allow comparisons between the
different environments of study. One should bear in mind that only after a thorough research of thermal comfort and
indoor air quality can be judged the quality of thermal environment and consequently, the efficiency of the HVAC
systems. Now, it will be shown the most important parameters in the design of the facilities of the air conditioning
systems.
PMV scale: It is a computational model for the evaluation of generic comfort conditions and predicts its limits. The
PMV scale is constituted by seven thermal sensation points ranging from -3(cold) to +3(hot), where 0 represents
the neutral thermal sensation.
PPD scale: Even when the PMV index is 0, there are some individual cases of dissatisfaction with the level of
temperature, although all are dressed in a similar way and the level of activity is the same. This is due to some
differences of approach in the evaluation of thermal comfort from one person to another. To predict the number of
persons who are dissatisfied in a given thermal environment, it is used as an index called PPD. In this PPD index,
individuals who vote -3,-2,-1,1,+2,+3 on the PMV scale are considered thermally unsatisfied. Its evolution, as a
function of PMV, is reflected in figure 2.
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On the sample of the thermal conditions of an interior environment, it is important to remember that the human body
does not feel the temperature of the compound: he feels the loses that occur with the thermal environment. Therefore,
the parameters to be measured are those which affect the loss of heat and they are: air temperature (Ta), average
temperature radiant (Tr), air velocity (v), absolute humidity of air (w).
4. CONCLUSION
On the basis of this study, researchers can conclude that number of In-door and outdoor parameters are significant
while understanding general comfort conditioning in context of jaipur Climate. Therefore it is necessary to focus and
find out a thermal comfort models based on result of scientific research. The aim of this analysis is to identify an
exegetical model that allows prediction of human response to the thermal environment. Traditional methods of human
thermal analysis are based on the first law of thermodynamics. These methods use an energy balance of the human
body to determine heat transfer between the body and its environment. Researchers have shown that the existing
methods of human thermal comfort assessment could be further expanded by taking into account exergy analysis.
Under steady state conditions, the results indicate that there is a connection between exergy consumption and expected
levels of thermal comfort. Such an extension better determines the connection between environmental conditions and
predicted thermal sensation
References
[1] Sharma S.K., Jain, A., and Jain, R. (2012a), Sustainability, Energy Management & Waste Management, in
Commercial buildings A Pilot Study International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
(ISSN 2250-2459), Vol. 2 No. 5, pp. 240 249.
[2] Sharma S.K., Jain, A., and Jain, R. (2012b), Total Productive Maintenance of a Thermal System (Steam Power
Plant) International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology (IJEIT) ISSN: 2277-3754 Vol. 2 No. 3,
pp. 72 79.
[3] K. Katic, W. Zeiler, and G. Boxem (2014), Thermo physiological models: a first comparison Fifth GermanAustrian IBPSA Conference RWTH Aachen University pp. 595 602.
[4] Fanger, P.O. (1972), Thermal comfort. McGraw-Hill. (Translation of original Danish edition published 1970).
[5] Brager, G. S. and de Dear, R. J. (1998), Thermal adaptation in the built environment: a literature review Energy
and Buildings, Vol. 27, pp. 83-96.
[6] Tham, K.W and Ullah, M.B., (1993), Building energy performance and thermal comfort in Singapore, ASHRAE
Transactions Vol. 99 No. 1.
[7] Gagge, A.P., Fobelets, A.P. and Berglund, L.G. (1986), A standard predictive index of human response to the
thermal environment, ASHRAE Transactions. Vol. 92 (2b) pp. 709-731.
[8] Hoof, J. van, Mazej, M. and Hensen, J.L.M. (2010), Thermal comfort: research and practice, Frontiers in
Bioscience, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 765-788.
[9] Gagge AP, Stolwijk JAJ, Nishi Y. (1971), An effective temperature scale based on a simple model of human
physiological regulatory response, ASHRAE Trans Vol. 77 No. 1 pp. 247262.
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[10] Ye G, Yang C, Chen Y, Li Y. (2003), A new approach for measuring predicted mean vote (PMV) and standard
effective temperature (SET*), Build Environ Vol. 38 No. 1 pp. 3344.
AUTHOR DETAILS
Shiv kumar Sharma received B.E. in Mechanical Engineering in 2004 from MITS Gwalior
and MBA in HR in 2010 and M. Tech. in Thermal from RGPV Bhopal. He has qualified GATE
twice. Presently he is working as assistant professor in Amity University Rajasthan Jaipur. His
research area mainly includes TQM, TPM, IC Engines.
Abhishek Jain received B.E. in Mechanical Engineering in 2001 from RGPV Bhopal and M.
Tech. in Production Engineering in 2007 from MITS Gwalior. Presently he is working as
assistant professor in Amity University Rajasthan Jaipur. His research area mainly includes
TQM, TPM, and Maintenance Management.
Nitesh Singh Rajput received B.E. in Mechanical Engineering in 2010 from RGPV Bhopal and
M. E. in Tribology & Maintenance in 2012 from SGSITS Indore. Presently he is working as
assistant professor in Amity University Rajasthan Jaipur. His research area mainly includes
Compressor, Non-Newtonian fluids and Maintenance Management.
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IPASJ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering (IIJME)

Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJME/IIJME.htm

A Publisher for Research Motivation........

Volume 3, Issue 5, May 2015