Thermal insulation of clothing ensembles for Chinese textile workers in the cotton textile workshop

Abstract

To assess the thermal insulation of clothing ensembles in a real cotton textile workshop environment, air velocity and walking speed were adopted to correct the static value of the basic insulation. Approximately 41 workers were chosen as the subjects to assess the static value of the thermal insulation and derive the dynamic value of the thermal insulation in the actual cotton textile workshop. Comparative analyses were performed between the data obtained in both static and real world conditions. Results showed that the dynamic value of basic insulation/total insulation was significantly lower than the static value, with basic insulation lowering 0.07 clo and total insulation lowering 0.29 clo. Due to the change in the thermal insulation, the thermal environment deteriorated at a low operative temperature (<32 °C) and improved at a high operative temperature (>32 °C) in real world conditions when compared to static conditions.