On the Evolution of Thermoregulation Models

Abstract

Thermoregulation models are effective tools for predicting the human response to the thermal environments, assessing thermal comfort and/or thermal stress due to cold or hot conditions, in clothing and automotive research and in building simulation. Fifty years after the first paper by Stolwijk, this work is aimed to the reconstruction of the historical evolution of thermoregulation models based on the bibliography available at the InEQualitES (Indoor Environmental Quality and Energy Saving) team, established in 1983 by professor Gaetano Alfano (University of Naples Federico II) and made by researchers of the DII and DIIn Departments. On the basis of the most recent literature, past and present perspectives of Stolwijk-like models have been also discussed showing the performances of THERMODE 193, a model inspired by the open source philosophy of its precursor and actualized to the recent advances in the field.