Treffer: Unraveling thermal response of human body to steady and transient thermal environments: A non-Fourier bioheat transfer model and its validation.

• Thermal response of human body is well predicted by a novel bioheat transfer model. • This model takes account of effects of non-Fourier heat conduction of human body. • Our model shows better prediction performance than previous simplified models. • Phase lags in non-Fourier heat transfer are key to accurately reflect the response. Given the growing impacts of climate change and extreme heat events, accurate modeling of the human body's response to various thermal environments is necessary for evaluating one's thermal comfort and implementing thermal regulation. It becomes essential especially in the context of climate warming and the frequent extreme weathers recently. Based on non-Fourier law of heat conduction, this study has developed a novel model of bioheat transfer for unraveling human body's response to steady and transient thermal environments. This model, by fusing the renowned Gagge's two-node model with a dual-phase hysteresis model, takes account of phase lags in heat flux and conduction caused by microstructural interactions and the thermoregulation effects of physiological activities within biological tissues. Extensive comparisons with reported analytical and experimental results show that the model can precisely predict the temporal evolution of temperature in living tissue layers and small changes in the human core temperature. It is well validated by studies under both steady-state and step-transient thermal environments. Compared to the simplified thermoregulatory bioheat model, our model yields reduced root mean square errors (RMSEs). In steady-state conditions, the RMSEs of the mean skin and core temperature are reduced from 0.50 °C to 0.38 °C and from 0.62 °C to 0.52 °C, respectively. In step-transient ones, the RMSE of the mean skin temperature is reduced from 0.44 °C to 0.37 °C. Our model provides a more reliable and accurate tool for quantifying the thermal responses of human body to steady and volatile thermal environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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