Predicting local skin temperatures of the human body in contact with a heated and ventilated seat in a vehicle

Abstract

Heated and ventilated seats can quickly reduce passengers’ thermal discomfort and also contribute to lowering the energy consumption of a vehicle’s HVAC system. For optimizing the control of the seats, it is essential to estimate passengers’ thermal comfort and sensation, including contact segments with the seat. The local and overall thermal comfort and sensation of passengers can be inferred from the local and mean skin temperatures of body segments. In this study, a multi-segment model was modified to estimate both local and mean skin temperatures of a passenger seated in a heated and ventilated seat in vehicles. The modified model was validated through experiments with thirty-nine subjects in a real vehicle, which was exposed to severe hot and cold conditions in an automotive climate chamber. The experimental results confirmed that the modified model can accurately predict both the local and mean skin temperatures of the subjects, with a maximum error of 2.1 ℃ even under conditions of a highly transient and asymmetrical thermal environment in the driver’s seat. The model can contribute to developing operation strategies of heated and ventilated seats in vehicles.