Thermoregulatory Responses in Disparate Thermal Environments.

摘要

Thermoregulatory responses to disparate thermal environments were investigated. Twenty-seven experiments were conducted on six subjects wearing light clothing and exposed supine, then prone, on a net support placed so that the subject's body midline was parallel and within a horizontal plane dividing upper and lower chamber sections. Upper chamber half was maintained at 82.2 and 93.3 C while lower half was at -6.7 C. Air temperatures varied from -6.7 to 82 and 93 C, with a range of 15-30 C at the subject. Following measurements at comfort conditions, 17 skin and rectal temperature, heart rate, and evaporation were measured and recorded every 5 min during the 30-min supine and 50-min prone exposure. While maximum differences between anterior-posterior mean skin temperature (Ts) of 9.1 and 9.5 C for the 82 and 93 C upper chamber temperatures, respectively, were measured, subjects reported thermal comfort. Maximum (Ts) variation at comfort was 4.1 C. Mean evaporative rates of 48.4 and 108.6 g/sq m hr for the 82 and 93 C exposures, respectively, indicated light sweating. Heart rate changes were insignificant. (Author)