A numerical simulation study for the human passive thermal system

• Published in: Energy and buildings Vol. 40; no. 7; pp. 1117 - 1123
• Main Authors: Yildirim, Eda Didem, Ozerdem, Baris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 2008; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Building technical equipments; Buildings; Buildings. Public works; Computation methods. Tables. Charts; Energy management and energy conservation in building; Environmental engineering; Exact sciences and technology; Human body; Passive thermal model; Structural analysis. Stresses; Transient heat transfer; Human body; Passive thermal model; Transient heat transfer; Human; Passive system; Modeling; Transients; Three dimensional model; System description; Numerical simulation; Mathematical model; Thermal model; Heat transfer
• ISSN: 0378-7788
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2007.10.015

The objective of this study is to create a dynamic model representing a transient three-dimensional passive thermal model of the human body. The model is a multi-segmental, multi-layered representation of the human body with spatial subdivisions which simulates the heat transfer phenomena within the body and at its surface. In order to represent the mechanisms of heat transfer within the body, energy balance equations including conduction with adjacent tissue, heat storage, metabolic heat generation, and convective heat transfer due to the blood flow in the capillaries are taken into consideration for each tissue. The present model of the passive system accounts for the geometric and anatomic characteristics of the human body and considers the thermo-physical and the basal physiological properties of tissue materials. It is assumed that the body is exposed to combination of the convection, evaporation and radiation which are taken into account as boundary conditions when solving the passive thermal system equation. The model is capable of predicting human body temperature in any given environmental conditions. Finite difference solution scheme is used to find out the temperature distribution of human body. The results are compared with the experimental data of previous studies present in the literature. Consequently, the numerical results of present model show good agreement with the experimental data.