Local clothing thermal properties of typical office ensembles under realistic static and dynamic conditions

An accurate local thermal sensation model is indispensable for the effective development of personalized conditioning systems in office environments. The output of such a model relies on the accurate prediction of local skin temperatures, which in turn depend on reliable input data of the local clothing thermal resistance and clothing area factor. However, for typical office clothing ensembles, only few local datasets are available in the literature. In this study, the dry thermal resistance was measured for 23 typical office clothing ensembles according to EN-ISO 15831 on a sweating agile manikin. For 6 ensembles, the effects of different air speeds and body movement were also included. Local clothing area factors were estimated based on 3D scans. Local differences can be found between the measured local insulation values and local area factors of this study and the data of other studies. These differences are likely due to the garment fit on the manikin and reveal the necessity of reporting clothing fit parameters (e.g., ease allowance) in the publications. The increased air speed and added body movement mostly decreased the local clothing insulation. However, the reduction is different for all body parts, and therefore cannot be generalized. This study also provides a correlation between the local clothing insulation and the ease allowance for body parts covered with a single layer of clothing. In conclusion, the need for well-documented measurements is emphasized to get reproducible results and to choose accurate clothing parameters for thermo-physiological and thermal sensation modeling. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00484-018-1625-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.