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Journal Article

Optimum Seat Cooling Distribution for Targeted Human Thermal Comfort®

2017-03-28
2017-01-0170
Seat cooling and heating strategies have enhanced human thermal comfort in automotive environments. Cooling/heating strategies also need to focus on the distribution of the seat cooling/heating power across the seat and the effect of such distributions on human thermal comfort. This paper studies the effect of active cooling combined with ventilation only strategy on thermal comfort. As part of the study, heat flux between the occupant and seat is mapped and is correlated to a step increase in the occupant’s local thermal comfort of body segments in contact with seat. A human physiological model and the Berkeley comfort model were combined to determine power and optimum placement of cooling to effectively cool an occupant using a climate control seat in a warm environment. This leads to a new approach using asymmetric seat cooling to distribute cooling power resulting in improved and balanced subjective comfort than traditional climate seat and ventilation technologies.
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