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.