Measurement of the convective heat transfer coefficient of the human body in the lift-up design

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

^* Corresponding author: jian-lei.niu@polyu.edu.hk

Abstract

So far, the research on the convective heat transfer coefficient (h_c) in outdoor thermal comfort has mainly employed CFD simulation and wind tunnel experiments, which are difficult to fully restore the complex microclimate wind environment. In the traditional thermal comfort model, the influence of turbulence intensity (TI) on the hc might be underestimated. This study aims to measure the hc of the human body surface in the outdoor environment. A thermal manikin was placed in a lift-up building. The ambient wind speed ranged from 0.5m/s to 4m/s, with the TI ranging from 4% to 55%. The experimental results show that under the same wind speed, the difference in hc between high and low TI can be up to 15%. Based on that, the regression formula for predicting hc related to wind speed and TI was proposed. This experimental study supplements the lack of field measurement of h_c in outdoor thermal comfort research, which is helpful to improve the accuracy of the outdoor thermal comfort model.