An Outdoor Thermal Comfort Index for the Subtropics

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a research that proposes a thermal comfort index, allowing the verification of the thermal adequacy of outdoor spaces in the subtropics. The method adopted is experimental inductive, by means of field research of a total of ninety-eight micro-climatic situations and over two thousand and five hundred applied questionnaires of thermal sensation perception and preference. Deductive method is also applied, by means of regression analysis, considering seventy-two different micro-climatic conditions. The significance of the results is verified by comparison with the ones obtained by simulation of different predictive models and respective indexes, considering the results from twenty-six different micro-climatic conditions gathered in different urban situations from the previous survey. The results from the proposed equation, compared with those from the others predictive models, showed that, for the specific subtropical microclimatic conditions, they present better correlations with the data gathered. Concluding, the methods used provided a simple, easy-to-use and reliable thermal comfort index to assess outdoor thermal comfort in the subtropical climate