Abstract
This study was experimentally investigated in order to clarify effects of air temperature and clothing on thermophysiological responses and thermal comfort vote during rest and physical exercise.
The experiments were carried out in a climate chamber at Nara Women's University at different air temperatures from 15 to 30°C and in 3 types of clothing conditions. Nude : half naked (bathing bra and panties), Half : a half-sleeved cotton T-shirts, cotton shorts, bathing bra, panties and cotton socks, Long : a long-sleeved cotton sweater, cotton trousers on the Half type ensemble. The relative humidity was 50%. The mean radiant temperature was equal to the ambient air temperature, and air velocity was less than 0.2 m/sec. The subjects were three healthy untrained young women. They rested for 30 min and then took physical exercise on a bicycle ergometer for 40 min.
The results were as follows :
(1) The more the clothing insulation increased, the higher the mean skin temperature became. (2) The thermal sensation vote changed to the hotter side with increasing of the air temperature and the clothing insulation. The positive relations between mean skin temperature and thermal sensation vote were significantly observed during rest and 25 W exercise. The thermal neutral votes during rest and 25 W exercise, respectively, were 26 and 21.5°C in Nude, 24.5 and 20.5°C in Half, 21.5 and 18.5°C in Long.
(3) The relation between do values and air temperatures in the thermal neutrality was compared with that obtained from the do formula by Winslow et al. (1949).
