Abstract
As a method for averaging skin temperatures which show its own value respectively at each site on the body surface, the mean skin temperature weighted with local skin area ratios alone has been used and many kinds of weighting formulas for calculating mean skin temperature have been proposed by physiologists and biological engineers. If mean skin temperature is derived from the heat balance equation between man and his environment, it will include the heat transfer coefficient for the human body in addition to the skin surface area. In the present study, based on the heat transfer theory from an engineering angle, a general equation for mean skin temperature weighted with the ratios of convective (h_c, h_<cn>) and radiative (h_r, h_<rn>) heat transfer coefficients and of skin areas (A_s, A_<sn>) was defined by the following equation. A general equation for mean skin temp. : [numerical formula] Then, a practical formula when a human body is divided into six main parts as a basis of a thermal cylinder model was proposed and was compared with some ordinary formulas by mere skin area ratios. A practical formula for mean skin temp. (in the case of n=6) : T_s=0.11T_<(Head)>+0.28T_<(Trunk)>+0.07T_<(Upper arm)>+0.13T_<(Forearm)>+0.21T_<(Thigh)>+0.20T_<(Leg)>
