In this paper, the authors investigated a feasibility of predicted temperature distribution and thermal comfort by using a thermal fluid simulation. A human body was represented by a 65-multi node model(65MN). An external environment was represented by a 2-dimensional discrete thermal fluid model. And a helmet was represented as a head's clo value on a 65 MN model. As results of a simulation,it was clear that the simulation was capable of prediction for head temperature variation by a helmet with 0.5 degrees prediction error. However, the simulation results were 0.4 to 1.0 degrees higher than the actual ones for both with and without a helmet. It was shown that the simulation results were appropriate considering the difference between the subjects' body shape and the simulated one. On the other hand it was found that the estimation of thermal comfort by a simulation leaves room for improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the influence of thermal insulation of women's clothing ensembles in terms of ease or extra space of clothing for human body. The thermal insulation of clothing in three sizes and four typical postures were measured.
Differences of clothing area factors (Fcl) according to these ease of clothing for body were observed in chair sitting and leg-out sitting postures. There were differences in the wrinkles on the surface of the clothes in standing and lying postures. It was shown that the measurements in each ease of clothing for body were necessary in the measurement of Fcl.
Differences expressed by these ease of clothing for body were seen in each posture in regard to the thermal insulation of clothing ensembles. In clothes whose ease of clothing for human body is large,the thermal insulation of clothing tended to rise.

The aim of this study was to clarify the effects of menstrual cycle and circadian variation on thermoregulatory responses in women. The authors measured rectal temperature(T_re), skin blood flow(SBF),local sweating rate(m_sw)and skin temperatures(T_sk), mean skin temperature(T_sk) of nine female subjects at 24.0±0.5℃ and 45±3%RH in follicular(F) and luteal phases(L). Subjects immersed their lower legs and feet in a water bath at a temperature ranging from 35℃ to 41℃. The measurements were carried out four different times of the day [0:00,6:00,12:00,18:00] for two phases, respectively. As a result, the slope of the SBF to T_re relationship on the forearm at 6:00 was higher in L than F (p < 0.05). It was clarified that the skin vascular reaction of women was affected by the menstrual cycle on the forearm early in the morning. Therefore, these results suggest that the need is important to achieve the effects of menstrual cycle and time of day on the thermoregulatory responses when we consider the clothing comfort of women.

The environmental room was set at 29℃ and 30%RH. Nine kinds of lining fabrics for men's summer suit were prepared. Fourteen pairs of suitable terminology were chosen to evaluate these lining fabrics. The hand properties of linings were evaluated in the constant way by forty subjects. There were very little difference of each sensory evaluation between male hand panels and female hand panels. They were able to judge the hand properties of lining fabrics such as smoothness, slipperiness and softness. However, the clinging properties of lining fabrics could not be scored neither by the hand properties nor the physical properties of lining fabrics.

Eight young women wearing non-waterproof and waterproof shoes in cold and wet conditions were examined to investigate the effects on physiological responses and subjective symptoms. In this report, the subjects were kept resting in the sitting position on a chair about 20 minutes in a climatic chamber with a temperature of 15.0±0.5℃, and a relative humidity of 50±5%. They were then measured in the same sitting position for 5 minutes. Next, subjects' right legs were immersed in water at 10℃ for 5 minutes and their physiological responses and subjective sensations were evaluated. The rise in blood pressure, decrease in pulse, the decrease in temperature of the toe skin and decrease in the skin blood flow after immersion were significant in non-waterproof shoes. However, only a significant decrease in the skin blood flow was found from wearing waterproof shoes. As for subjective sensation, there was an uncomfortable feeling following immersion even if subjects put back on their shoes. These results suggest that the rise in blood pressure can be suppressed by wearing waterproof shoes though the uncomfortable feeling after the immersion in water was retained whether the waterproof shoes or non-waterproof shoes were worn.

This paper demonstrates a practical method for simulating the wearing of underpants by a human, and for evaluating the contact pressure distribution between the underpants and the body. First, an experiment for verifying the simulation method is introduced using a simple shorts model and a rigid dummy model. Then the wearing simulation is presented and the simulated results are compared with the results obtained in the experiment. By a verification of the simulated contact pressure distribution, the proposed simulation method is shown to be a useful one in practice. Next, an application of the simulation method is performed as an example. It predicts the transformation of contact pressure distribution between shorts and a human body during a sitting motion. In this case, virtual abdomen and buttocks, which can be deformed as a hyper elastic body, and a simple shorts model are employed. Results are presented for a standing position, a half-crouching position and a seated position. These simulated contact pressure distributions are useful for designers as a way to gauge the comfort level of shorts, underpants or adult diapers during the virtual stage of the design process.

To elucidate the regional difference in swelling in the lower extremities induced by upright sitting, we measured volume of the ankle (Region B) and distal part to the ankle (Region A) of the dominant foot. Eight healthy young female subjects (21.6±1.1 years old) participated in the present study. The volume of the Region A and B in each subject was measured five times between 8:00 to 16:00 using a custom-designed measuring shoe. The rate of the fractional volume increase for the whole leg was expressed as an exponential function : y=3.34(1-e^-t/235.1),(R²=0.997). The volume of Region B increased significantly from 194.5±35.8ml to 200.9±40.0ml, while the volume of Region A increased from 561.7±50.2 to 579.3±51.7ml. The rate of fractional volume change in Region A was expressed as y=3.24(1-e^-t/242.2),(R²=0.976) and the volume continued to increase slowly throughout the 8-h measurement. The rate of the fractional volume change in Region B was fitted as y=3.41(1-e^-t/151.4),(R²=0.949) and the calculated time constant for B was shorter than for Region A by 90.4 min. These results demonstrate that there exists a regional difference in the swelling rate among the foot regions with a different time constant.

The authors study on the disposable pants type diapers, composed of elastic non-woven fabrics, for elderly people who are especially healthy, but have a little anxiety about urinary incontinence. Our objective is to establish the relationships between the wearing comfort and the physical properties of the disposable pants type diapers. The results could be summarized as follows: (1)“Fitting feeling” and “Feeling of pad” affect on the wearing comfort. (2)There are high correlations between wearing comfort and tensile and shear properties of non-woven fabric in the lower hip zone and the bending of pad.(3)Diapers composed of high extension non-woven fabrics in the lower hip zone fit the motion and bring comfort feeling.

Human body odor consists of various kinds of odor components and sometimes causes a discomfort to other people. The purpose of this study is to determine the body odor components of young women quantitatively and clarify an individual difference among them. Ten healthy female subjects (21-34 years of age) volunteered to participate in this study. Each subject was given a shirt and socks (cotton 100%) to which rectangular cotton pieces (5×10cm in size) were attached at the dorsum, axilla and planta. Subjects wore the shirts for 32 hours for the purpose of collecting body odor components. The components that adhered to the cotton pieces were analyzed by headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Octanal, nonanal, 2-nonenal, 2-ethylhexanol and 6-methyl-5-heptenone were detected in all subjects.The amount of these aldehyde compounds and ketone were significantly more at the dorsal part in comparison with the other body parts. On the other hand, when an amount of detection individual was examined, nonanal and octanal were detected in all subjects with individual variation. We surmised that the aldehyde compounds were generated by oxidative degradation of fatty acids secreted from dorsal skin. Analysis of chemical components from human wearing clothes may provide useful information for improving quality of life at both the psychological and the physiological levels.

The replicating technique of skin integument which is an effective tool to observe the skin's surface characteristics is widely implemented in the cosmetic field. In this study, considering the effects to the skin caused by wearing clothing, such as friction and pressure, the replicating technique was applied to evaluate the skin surface of the trunk and limbs in the viewpoint of skin morphology. As preliminary data, the skin surface contour was observed through optical profilometry in three dimensions.The subjects were comprised of seven young women with the normal skin. Six regions of upper body were replicated by silicone rubber to measure the surface contour. There were two measuring environments, i.e., neutral condition at 27℃, and sweating condition at 32℃ with a footbath. The measurements were repeated twice in each person. The results showed a slgnificant difference in the surface contour among replicated regions. This fact suggested that sweating decreases skin surface roughness in the vertical direction significantly. These results reveal that this method is appropriate to relatively describe the skin surface contour quantitatively.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of level of sweating rate on change in mean skin temperature (Tsk) while wearing undershirts with different moisture absorption (Polyester(P), Cupro/Polyester(C)) in our experiment and comparing with Tsk data in the similar observations. The rise of Tsk was significantly higher in C than in P after the onset of sweating and the influence of heat of sorption was observed in C when the ambient temperature was changed from 26℃ to 20℃,and then to 35℃ over 240 minutes in 50% environmental humidity (p<0.05). From the examination results of our study and as a eight studies, it was shown that the level of sweating rate was 0.12-0.15mg/(cm²・min) in total sweat rate, 0.07-0.13mg/(cm²・min) in forearm sweat rate at the studies that the rise in Tsk with the wearing clothing of high moisture absorption was observed like our study. Therefore,it was suggested that the effect of rise in Tsk due to heat of sorption induced by moisture absorption depended on the level of sweating rate.