Experimental study on the thermal comfort and physiological responses of the elderly in unstable environments

¹ School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, 310018, Zhejiang, China
² Joint International Research Laboratory of Green Buildings and Built Environments (Ministry of Education), Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, China
³ National Centre for International Research of Low-carbon and Green Buildings (Ministry of Science and Technology), Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, China
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aalto University, 02150 Espoo, Finland
⁵ College of Urban Construction, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 210009, China

^* Corresponding author: wuyuxin1988@foxmail.com; wuyuxin1988@cqu.edu.cn (Yuxin Wu)
^** Corresponding author: liuhong1865@163.com (Hong Liu)

Abstract

In this study, the investigators used comparative experiments in order to study the age differences and the effects of temperature changes on physiological responses. Firstly, This paper analyzed the thermal sensation differences and the trend of changes in the design working conditions in different age groups. The researchers found that the thermal sensation of elderly people was lower than that of young people in the hot environment and higher than that of young people in the cold environment. On this basis, the heart rate changes of the elderly in the dynamic environment and the differences with the young people were studied. The results showed that the heart rate of the elderly and the young people increased with the increase of temperature in the temperature rise condition, but there was no significant difference between the two groups. In the temperature drop condition, the heart rate decreased with the decrease of temperature. Finally, an equation was developed to quantitatively predict heart rate parameters. The equation predicts human heart rate by ambient temperature, and the results show that the least square error of the prediction equation for elderly people is 46, while the average difference between the actual and predicted values is 1.2. Therefore, it is recommended to use the proposed heart rate prediction equation when predicting the healthiness of heart rate in elderly people.