The response of human thermal perception and skin temperature to step-change transient thermal environments

• This study is foundation for dynamic model for predicting thermal sensation.
• Asymmetry of overall thermal sensation occurred in step-change environment.
• Gradient of skin temperature can predict thermal sensation in down-step.
• Heat loss from skin surface correlates well with thermal sensation in transient.
• The results can be used in both vehicles and built environment.

This paper investigates human thermal perception and skin temperatures in step-change transient thermal environments. Three transient processes were designed in climate chamber. 20 subjects participated in all the experiments. Thermal sensation votes and skin temperatures were recorded in both step-change stages and quasi-steady ones. The asymmetries occurred between thermal sensation votes for warm to neutral transient environment and the votes for the neutral back to warm transient environment. There is a poor correlation between thermal sensation vote and skin temperature in step-change transient periods. However, thermal sensation vote correlates significantly with variation rate of temperature with time in approximately linear correlation at down-step change stages, and correlates well with heat loss from skin surface in both down-step change stages and up-step change stages, which implies heat loss from skin surface can be used instead of heat transfer of human body as an index to predict thermal sensation in a step-changing transient environment.