Abstract
Thermal environment is one of the important factors affecting passengers' comfort in railway trains. However, there has been limited research on the relationships between passengers' comfort and the thermal environment in railway trains. The aim of this paper is to clarify the relationships with a focus on high speed trains in winter. At first, to understand the characteristics of the thermal environment in a high speed train, a field survey was conducted by measuring the temperature and humidity on a high speed train in regular passenger services from the morning to the night. The observation range of the temperature was from 23.8℃ to 28.0℃, and that of the humidity was from 5.6%rh to 41.7%rh. Then, to obtain the fundamental data about the passengers' thermal comfort, a subjective experiment in which 19 subjects participated was carried out. The subjects rode a high speed train stationed at a rolling stock center, and they experienced the temperature changing approximately in the observation range in the field survey and answered questionnaires about their thermal comfort. Furthermore, in order to widely utilize the findings of the experiment, the relationships between the thermal index called SET* and the subjective evaluation values were analyzed. As a result, it was indicated that the percentage of the subjects dissatisfied with the thermal environment was 20% at a SET* of 27.2℃, and above the SET*, it began to increase suddenly. Finally, the results of the experiment were compared with those obtained in a previous study in summer. The results of the comparison suggested that even at the same SET*, the thermal comfort was different depending on the seasons.
