Evaluation on Human Thermal Comfort in the Cabin Environment of Shanghai Passenger Ship

Abstract

Human thermal comfort on ships is an important factor in the efficiency and quality of life of personnel. A year-long human thermal comfort survey is conducted in Chinese ship cabins environment. A field questionnaire is taken to obtain the human subjective thermal responses, including three groups: winter, summer, and transitional seasons. The data for each group are collected from the residential cabins, the dining room, and the cockpit. The thermal neutral temperature, the thermal acceptance temperature, and the thermal preference temperature are presented to adequately express the human subjective thermal response. The results indicated that the thermal acceptance temperature and thermal preference temperature are higher than the thermal neutral temperature of the interior spaces in all three seasons. In the dining room, the thermal preference temperature in winter, summer, and transition seasons are 3.0 °C, 0.4 °C, and 1.2 °C higher than the thermal neutral temperature. People prefer a warmer environment in interior spaces on the ship. The thermal neutral temperature and thermal acceptance temperature of the ship's cockpit exhibited small differences in the three seasons. The cockpit crew is more adaptable to the temperature fluctuations resulting from seasonal changes. This research contributes to enhancing human thermal comfort by improving marine cabins' thermal environment.