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Applied Sciences
Special Issues
Indoor Environmental Quality and Thermal Comfort
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Indoor Environmental Quality and Thermal Comfort

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 September 2022) | Viewed by 5530

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Jing Zhao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Tianjin Key Lab of Indoor Air Environmental Quality Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China
Interests: building energy efficiency; building simulation; intelligent control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are inviting submissions to a Special Issue on Indoor Environmental Quality and Thermal Comfort.

The greatest majority of people live 80–90% of their lives inside buildings. In existing and future buildings, there will be an increasing focus on indoor environmental quality, which affects the health of the occupants. Various biological and chemical pollutants and their interplays can affect IEQ seriously, especially COVID-19. Therefore, research on the transmission mechanism of COVID-19 is particularly important. It is also necessary to study evaluation indices of IEQ, reliable models of IEQ, and different methods to improve IEQ.

Thermal comfort has a high influence on occupant comfort, and affects occupants’ study and work efficiency. There are many factors affecting thermal comfort, such as temperature, relative humidity, mean ambient temperature, clothing insulation, and metabolic rate; it is also influenced by subjective factors. The development of reliable thermal comfort evaluation models and thermal comfort ranges for people in different conditions would be very valuable.

In this Special Issue, we invite submissions exploring cutting-edge research and recent advances in the fields of indoor environmental quality and thermal comfort. Both theoretical and experimental studies are welcome, as well as comprehensive review and survey papers.

Dr. Jing Zhao
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 5793 KiB  
Article
Infrared Thermography to Evaluate Thermal Comfort under Controlled Ambient Conditions
by Ricardo M. S. F. Almeida, Eva Barreira, Maria Lurdes Simões and Tiago S. F. Sousa
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12105; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app122312105 - 26 Nov 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1434
Abstract
Infrared thermography (IRT) is often used to assess body temperature and can be useful as a diagnostic tool to detect human diseases. Despite this clear application in medicine, some studies can be found in the literature pointing to the use of IRT to [...] Read more.
Infrared thermography (IRT) is often used to assess body temperature and can be useful as a diagnostic tool to detect human diseases. Despite this clear application in medicine, some studies can be found in the literature pointing to the use of IRT to measure body temperature as a parameter to evaluate thermal comfort inside buildings. However, there are still some issues that are understudied that this paper tried to address. For this purpose, an intensive experimental campaign was carried out, in which different combinations of temperature and relative humidity were implemented. Thermal images were taken of the face of a young adult, while the air temperature and relative humidity were assessed, as well as the body temperature, using traditional means. The results confirmed that different IR cameras and different ambient conditions (air temperature) impact the image resolution and definition. A linear correlation between the IRT results and the PMV was found for six subregions of the face. This correlation was higher in the forehead, cheekbones, and chin, and less interesting when measuring the temperature of the nose. However, if the overall temperature of the face is assessed, a good agreement between the PMV and the IRT results can still be found, indicating that the average facial temperature can be used as an indicator for the determination of thermal comfort. A prediction model for PMV based on IRT was proposed, with a root mean square error close to 0.70, when applied in a face temperature range between 28.9 °C and 34.4 °C. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Indoor Environmental Quality and Thermal Comfort)
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22 pages, 10720 KiB  
Article
Research on the Indoor Thermal Environment of Attached Sunspace Passive Solar Heating System Based on Zero-State Response Control Strategy
by Jing Zhao, Dehan Liu and Shilei Lu
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(2), 855; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12020855 - 14 Jan 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1296
Abstract
The application of attached sunspace passive solar heating systems (ASPSHS) for farmhouses can improve building performance, reduce heating energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. In order to take better use of the attached sunspace to prevent heat transfer or promote natural ventilation, this [...] Read more.
The application of attached sunspace passive solar heating systems (ASPSHS) for farmhouses can improve building performance, reduce heating energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. In order to take better use of the attached sunspace to prevent heat transfer or promote natural ventilation, this paper presented a zero-state response control strategy for the opening and closing time of active interior window in the ASPSHS. In order to verify the application of this strategy, an attached sunspace was built in an actual farmhouse. A natural ventilation heat exchange model was built based on the farmhouse with attached sunspace. The proposed zero-state response control strategy was implemented in TRNSYS software. Field measurement in living lab was carried out to inspect the distribution of the thermal environment in the farmhouse with attached sunspace under a zero-state response control strategy in the cold region of northern China. The experimental results show that, even under −5.0–2.5 °C ambient temperature, the application of zero-state response control strategy effectively increases the internal temperature to an average of 25.45 °C higher than the outside, with 23% indoor discernible temperature differential in the sample daytime. The whole-season heating performance was evaluated by simulating the model for the heating season in 2020–2021. The simulation demonstrates that the ASPSHS under zero-state response control strategy can maintain a basic indoor temperature of 14 °C for 1094 h during the heating season, with a daytime heating guarantee rate of 73.33%, thus ensuring higher indoor heating comfort during the day. When compared to a farmhouse with an attached sunspace under the zero-state response control strategy, the energy savings rate can be enhanced by 20.88%, and carbon emissions can be reduced by 51.73%. Overall, the attached sunspace with the zero-state response control strategy can effectively increase the indoor temperature when the solar radiation is intensive and create a suitable thermal environment for the farmhouse in the cold region of northern China. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Indoor Environmental Quality and Thermal Comfort)
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19 pages, 10117 KiB  
Article
Experimental Investigation on Thermal Comfort of COVID-19 Nucleic Acid Sampling Staff in Hot and Humid Environment: A Pilot Study of University Students
by Yingying Zhao, Jiying Liu, Moon Keun Kim, Shiyu Zhou and Yanqiu Du
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(23), 11492; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app112311492 - 04 Dec 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1619
Abstract
The current situation of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevention and control coupled with the need to work in high-temperature harsh environments makes it necessary to ensure the health and efficiency of medical staff. An experimental outdoor work tent was set up and university [...] Read more.
The current situation of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevention and control coupled with the need to work in high-temperature harsh environments makes it necessary to ensure the health and efficiency of medical staff. An experimental outdoor work tent was set up and university students were used to study the thermal comfort of personnel wearing protective clothing in hot and humid environments. The experiment was carried out simultaneously through subjective and objective field tests and physiological tests of personnel. The wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) index was investigated to divide the outdoor thermal environment into four working conditions: 21–23 °C, 23–25 °C, 25–27 °C and 27–29 °C. Under the different thermal environment intensities, the variations of physiological parameters of test personnel were monitored. The results showed that when WBGT was increased to 27–29 °C, 100% of the participants expected the external temperature to become cooler and the humidity to decrease after one hour. When the temperature was close to 30 °C and the relative humidity was close to 60%, it was necessary to take cooling measures to reduce the thermal stress of the participants. Moreover, relationships between subjective feelings and physiological parameters of the nucleic acid sampling personnel were obtained. Results also found that the forehead, chest and back were the highest skin temperature parts, so it is most effective to give priority to improving the thermal comfort of these three locations. As an early attempt to conduct the real outdoor experimental study on the thermal comfort of COVID-19 nucleic acid sampling staff, this study provided a theoretical basis for follow-up research to develop cooling strategies for protective clothing in hot and humid outdoor environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Indoor Environmental Quality and Thermal Comfort)
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