Center for the Built Environment

In order to accurately simulate skin and core temperatures and thermal comfort, some human physiology and comfort models now divide the human body into multiple body parts (such as head, hand, chest etc).  Most of these parts are normally covered with clothing insulation, which must be quantified in the simulation. Unfortunately, existing clothing insulation databases only characterize clothing insulation for the whole body, not for individual body parts.  That means every body part has the same clothing insulation level, even over the head and hands.  In this study, we measured clothing insulation for 40 typical clothing ensembles using a 16-segment thermal manikin, and present here the insulation values for each body part, as well as for the whole body.