Numerical simulation study on the heat loss from a thermal foot manikin

INTRODUCTION:The development of increasingly complex human thermal physiological andcomfort models asks for anatomically detailed and zone-specific heat transfercoefficients. With that in mind, a 3D numerical simulation model wasdeveloped to study the fluid flow and the heat transfer phenomena around amulti-zone thermal foot manikin, during exposure to convective currents.METHODS:The simulation model features heat transfer by conduction, natural andforced convection and radiation, as well as fully coupled fluid flow and heattransfer phenomena. The environmental conditions used in the simulationsmimic those of standardised manikin testing (e.g. ISO 15831). The model wasused to analyse the flow characteristics and to obtain detailed heat lossdistributions maps at the foot surface.RESULTS/DISCUSSION:The obtained numerical heat transfer coefficients compare favourably withdata from experimental measurements with a multi-zone thermal foot manikin,as well as with the results obtained by other researchers (de Dear et al.1997). This lends support to the modelling decisions done (fluid flow model,boundary conditions, etc.) and indicates that similar approaches can befollowed to study the heat loss from a foot (or other body zones) for otheroperating conditions (convection currents, temperature gradients, radiantenvironments, etc)