Clothing Physiological Properties of Cold Protective Clothing and Their Effects on Human Experience

• Main Author: Jussila, Kirsi
• Other Authors: Materiaaliopin laitos - Department of Materials Science, Rakennetun ympäristön tiedekunta - Faculty of Built Environment
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Tampere University of Technology 2016
• Subjects: Materiaalitekniikka - Materials engineering; Arctic
• Online Access: https://trepo.tuni.fi//handle/10024/113964

Approximately one third of the Finnish working population is exposed to cold ambient temperatures (<+10 °C) at their work due to natural or artificial environments. The longest cold exposure times are experienced in construction and maintenance work, agriculture and forest industry, process industry, traffic and military personnel. Climatic changes in the Arctic are expected to take place in the future and thus the activity of several industries will be increased in the region. Without sufficient protection against cold, windy and moist ambient conditions, cooling of the workers causes discomfort and moreover will impair physical and mental performance. Cold protective clothing creates a microclimate around the worker, and it is required to prevent detrimental cooling and to enable the worker to maintain the thermal balance. This thesis aimed to contribute new scientific information based on effects of clothing size, moderate wind and moisture on heat loss mechanisms through the layered cold protective clothing and how these affect the user’s experience on thermal comfort, coping and performance. Finally, the thesis aimed to gather the obtained information and the most significant findings from holistic points of view to determine recommendations for future design and development of cold protective clothing. The effects of layered cold protective clothing were examined from a multi-disciplinary perspective using textile technological and clothing physiological methods combined with thermophysiological and usability evaluation methods both in laboratory and in authentic field conditions. The measured materials consisted of layered fabric and clothing combinations, as well as different types of casualty coverings and protective gloves. The measurements were performed in the air temperature between −20 °C and +27 °C. Convective heat loss was studied in wind speeds of calm (0.3 m/s), moderate (4.0 m/s) and high (8.0 m/s). Effects of moisture from internal and external sources on clothing thermal insulation and ...