Experimental study of thermal comfort on stab resistant body armor

PURPOSE: This research aims to investigate the impacts of exercise intensity and sequence on human physiology parameters and subjective thermal sensation when wearing stab resistant body armor under daily working conditions in China [26 and 31 °C, 45–50 % relative humidity (RH)], and to investigate on the relationship between subjective judgments and objective parameters. METHODS: Eight male volunteers were recruited to complete 3 terms of exercises with different velocity set on treadmill for 90 min at 26 °C and 31 °C, 45–50 % RH. In Exercise 1 volunteers were seated during the test. In Exercise 2, volunteers walked with the velocity of 3 km/h in the first 45 min and 6 km/h in the left 45 min. In Exercise 3, volunteers walked with the velocity of 6 km/h in the first 45 min and 3 km/h in the left 45 min. The body core temperature, skin temperature and subjective judgments were recorded during the whole process. Analysis of variance was performed among all the tests. RESULTS: Individual discrepancy of Exercise 1 is larger than that of Exercise 2 and 3. On the premise of the same walking distance and environmental conditions, core temperature in Exercise 3 is about 0.2 °C lower than that in Exercise 2 in the end; and with the velocity decrease from 6 km/h to 3 km/h in the end, thermal tolerance of Exercise 3 is about 1 degree lower than that in Exercise 2. Skin temperatures of human trunk were at least 1 °C higher than that of limbs. CONCLUSIONS: Activity narrows the individual discrepancy on core temperature. Within experimental conditions, decreasing of intensity at last stage makes the core temperature lower and the whole process much tolerable. The core temperature is more sensitive to the external disturbance on the balance of the whole body, and it can reflect the subjective thermal sensation and physical exertion.