Development of Virtual Manikins and Its Grid Library for CFD Analysis

Abstract

Currently indoor environment studies focus on phenomena around the human body at the microclimate level, and therefore the need for more realistic and detailed human body models has been pointed out. Numerical models representing closely the actual shape of the human body have already been proposed for seated female models (or androgynous models based on female body shapes), and are available for indoor environment analysis applications. However, other human body shapes have not been modeled. In addition, since existing models use coarse meshes, sufficient detailed data on various parts of the human body has not been gathered. This study aims to develop virtual manikins that represent human body scales for adult males and females as well as child (almost seven-year-olds). The virtual manikins developed in this study cover two types of posture models. The virtual manikin is divided into 17 parts for the control of the thermal manikin, allowing the control and analysis of radiation heat transfer, surface temperature, and other factors in each part. We examined the accuracy of indoor environment prediction by conducting a coupled convection and radiation analysis on a simple room. As a result, we confirmed that thermal environment prediction could be carried out with sufficient accuracy in the analysis of microclimates around the human body.