Thermal Perception and Physiological Responses under Different Protection States in Indoor Crowded Spaces during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Summer

Tao Liu, Xiaofang Shan, Qinli Deng, Zeng Zhou, Guang Yang, Jue Wang and Zhigang Ren
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Tao Liu: School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Xiaofang Shan: School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Qinli Deng: School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Zeng Zhou: School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Guang Yang: School of Civil Engineering, Liaoning Technical University, Fuxin 123000, China
Jue Wang: School of Civil Engineering, Liaoning Technical University, Fuxin 123000, China
Zhigang Ren: School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: Currently, people in crowded indoor spaces are required to wear a variety of personal protective equipment to curb the spread of COVID-19. This study aimed to investigate the effects of wearing four types of personal protective equipment (unprotected, wearing masks, wearing face shield and wearing medical protective clothing) on human thermal perception and physiological responses in indoor crowded spaces in summer. The experiment was conducted in a climate chamber designed to simulate the indoor crowded spaces. Environmental parameters of climate chamber (air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed), physiological parameters of subjects (wrist skin temperature and pulse rate), and subjective perceptions (thermal sensation and thermal comfort) were collected during the experiment. The experimental results showed that medical protective clothing has the most obvious blocking effect on heat exchange between human and environment. Thermal sensation in state 4 (wearing medical protective clothing) was significantly ( p < 0.05) higher than that in other states. The study of physiological parameters showed that the wrist skin temperature and pulse rate under different protection states increased with the increase of room temperature. Through regression analysis, the thermal sensation estimation model of protective personnel in indoor crowded spaces based on wrist skin temperature and pulse rate was established. The adjusted R 2 and RMSE of all models were above 82% and less than 1, indicating that the established thermal sensation model had a good prediction effect.

Keywords: thermal comfort; wrist skin temperature; pulse rate; different protection states; indoor crowded spaces (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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