An anthropometric analysis of seated and standing people

Abstract

Thermal radiative exchanges of the human body with surrounding surfaces play an essential role in describing the thermal conditions of people in a given environment. Moreover, they could be induced by, among other causes, the presence of high intensity radiant sources, like lighting spots or infrared heating panels. This implies that a suitable set of radiation data related to human body anthropometry is required. This set of data mainly comprises the body surface area, the clothing area factor, the effective radiation area factor, and projected area factors. Several analytical or experimental methods may be utilized in order to compute these parameters. A detailed description of the most common of these will be illustrated in this study, pointing out their main features and their ease of application or otherwise. Thereafter, with reference to a field experiment conducted by means of purpose-built experimental apparatus, a detailed analysis concerning the determination of the values of clothing area factor, effective radiation area factor and projected area factors of a sample of standing and seated, and male and female subjects of the population of southern Italy will be described. In addition, the results of a study to determine differences in anthropometric parameters with regard to different gender and nationalities will be reported. The study will conclude by analyzing a specific case-study.