Modelling the thermal response of the human body for thermal comfort assessment in indoor spaces: an experimental validation

In this paper, a novel dynamic simulation model of the thermal behavior of the human body towards the thermal comfort assessment is presented. The proposed model allows for evaluating the impact of different physical and physiological parameters, human behavior features, and environmental conditions on thermal sensation. This model is suitably embedded into an in-house building energy performance simulation tool and it allows at correlating the building thermal loads to the thermal sensation to physical and biological aspects of the human body. To prove the reliability of the developed physiological model of the thermal response of the human body, data from an experimental campaign conducted at the University of Perugia, using a suitable test cell purposely assembled, are used. The parameters adopted for the model validation of the developed simulation model are the skin temperature dynamic trend resulting from the occupant thermal interaction with the surrounding environment, and the mean radiant temperature. Through a Pearson' correlation coefficient of 0.819 a very good agreement between simulation and experimental results is observed, suggesting that the developed human body thermal model is suitable for performing thermal comfort and building energy performance analyses based on the dynamic thermal sensation of occupants.