Report on manikin measurements for ASHRAE 1504-TRP: Extension of the Clothing Insulation Database for Standard 55 and ISO 7730 to provide data for Non-Western Clothing Ensembles, including data on the effect of posture and air movement on that insulation. Results of Cooperative Research between the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, Inc., and the Universities of Loughborough, Lund, Cornell and Hong Kong.
ASHRAE standard 55, ISO 7730 and chapter 9 in ASHRAE Handbook-Fundamentals titled ‘thermal comfort’ provide guidance for the assessment of thermal comfort in buildings. As inputs, the method uses climate parameters, the users’ activity level and the clothing insulation of the garments worn by the occupants. The standard provides guidance on the determination of these parameters and provides examples of values for activity level and clothing insulation. However, for the latter, the emphasis is on western style clothing, while in large parts of the world other clothing styles are worn, e.g. shalwar kameez in Pakistan, African clothing in Nigeria or Sarees in India. In order to use the methodology of ASHRAE 55 in non-western regions, insulation data for such clothing is required. In the present project, ASHRAE 1504-RP, such data was collected for a range of non-western clothing types. Four different thermal manikins (male and female shapes) in three different laboratories (UK, Sweden and China), were used to determine the clothing insulation values of 52 clothing configurations. These fifty two configurations were also tested for the effects of air velocity on insulation and forty three were tested for the effects of posture (sitting) and walking. The observed reductions in insulation for both air velocity and walking are higher than those presented in the literature for western ensembles, emphasizing the need for these new data. This effect is most likely related to more open weave fabrics and loose fit designs. Similarly the relation of the clothing surface area factor to intrinsic clothing insulation was different from that published for western clothing. Prediction equations for the clothing surface area factor fcl, based on the new data only had limited predictive power, which however was also the case for those obtained in the past for western clothing. This issue seems to be commonly overlooked, as the use of these prediction equations is widespread. It has to be concluded that reliable fcl values can only be obtained when these are actually measured as in the present work. Having said this, the concept of the fcl factor for the non-western clothing may not work in the first place, as the wide falling robes and gowns do not match the cylindrical clothing and air layer model on which the fcl concept is based. The results provide an extensive database of insulation values of non-western clothing styles in different wear configurations, in different air velocities, postures and movement. As such this is expected to be a valuable addition to ASHRAE 55 and ISO 7730 and ISO 9920. In addition, data obtained on the insulation of individual body parts can be used by CFD modelers to incorporate realistic insulation data in their models.
Funding
This research was funded by ASHRAE
History
School
Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
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Report on manikin measurements for ASHRAE 1504-TRP Extension of the Clothing Insulation Database for Standard 55 and ISO 7730 to provide data for Non‐Western Clothing Ensembles, including data on the effect of posture and air movement on that insulation. Results of Cooperative Research between the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, Inc., and the Universities of Loughborough, Lund, Cornell and Hong Kong.
Pages
1 - 202 (202)
Citation
HAVENITH, G. ... et al., 2013. Report on manikin measurements for ASHRAE 1504-TRP: Extension of the Clothing Insulation Database for Standard 55 and ISO 7730 to provide data for Non-Western Clothing Ensembles, including data on the effect of posture and air movement on that insulation. Results of Cooperative Research between the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, Inc., and the Universities of Loughborough, Lund, Cornell and Hong Kong. Unpublished.
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VoR (Version of Record)
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This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/