1998 Volume 35 Issue 1 Pages 35-44
This study was conducted to investigate the influence of posture on sensible temperature. The contacted surface areas between the floor and the human body were measured to quantitatively determine the heat conduction from the floor to subjects. Six postures were used for the measurements: standing, sedentary, sitting upright, sitting with legs crossed, sitting with knees drawn up, and lateral decubitus. Under the sitting upright posture, the contacted surface area was smaller than under the sitting with legs crossed, sitting with knees drawn up, and lateral decubitus postures, and it was almost the same as the contacted areas under the standing and sedentary postures. The contacted surface area of the sitting upright posture was almost negligible compared with the total surface area. The effective radiation area and configuration factors between the human body and rectangular planes were measured to make a quantitative thermal radiation. The sitting upright posture was used to measure the effective radiation area between the human body and numerous rectangular planes and thereby determine a quantitative thermal radiation value. The effective radiation area factor was found to be 0.66 for a sitting upright nude subject and 0.70 for a sitting upright clothed subject. Diagrams of the configuration factors between the human body and the rectangular planes were represented. Configuration factors between sitting upright subjects and the floor were found to be significantly larger than those for standing or sedentary subjects. The indoor climate of a house was used, and the thermal environmental index calculated on each posture from the result of measurements. The modified effective temperature (ETV) was used for calculating the thermal environmental index. A clear, qualitative correlation was evident between posture and sensible temperature.
