Citation

Alahmer A, Omar M. Vehicle engineering 2013; 1(1): 19-32.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Science and Engineering Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This report discusses the development of the thermal comfort zones, during summer and winter periods, inside vehicular cabins. This is done using two thermal modeling approaches; specifically Berkeley and Fanger computations. The limiting boundaries of the thermal comfort zone when computed by the Berkeley model is determined by the Overall thermal Sensation (OS ± 0.5), while according to Fanger model, the zone is determined by the Predicted Mean Vote index (PMV ± 0.5). The Berkeley simulation uses a virtual thermal manikin to predict the thermal sensation and comfort inside the cabin under different environmental conditions, while maintaining the cabin homogeneous state over a relative humidity range of (20-60%). The manikin clothing reflects the summer period through; short sleeve with long trousers at an approximate clothing insulation value of 0.5 clo. Additionally, the winter clothing for winter is long thick sleeve, long thick trousers, hand-wear and footwear with approximate clothing insulation value of 1 clo. The metabolic rate for a human passenger is set at 1.4 met to represent a seated human activity level. The same conditions are also used for the Fanger model except the range of relative humidity, which is (20-80%). The results show that the lower and upper temperature limits for the summer comfort window are at standard conditions of 22.4 and 27.3°C for the Berkeley model and at 23.1 and 27.4 °C for the Fanger model. On the other hand, the temperature limits for the winter comfort window are at 19.8 and 25.2°C for the Berkeley model and at 18.6 and 24.6 °C for the Fanger model. Additionally, the proposed study conducted a sensitivity analysis of these windows by changing (increase/decrease) of the metabolism, the cabin air velocity, and the clothing insulation values. KW: Hyperthermia in automobiles; Comfort Zone; Thermal Sensation; Berkeley Model; Fanger Model; Metabolic Rate; Clothing Insulation

Language: en