A novel test method for measuring the thermal properties of clothing ensembles under dynamic conditions

The dynamic thermal properties of clothing ensembles are important to thermal transient comfort, but have so far not been properly quantified. In this paper, a novel test procedure and new index based on measurements on the sweating fabric manikin-Walter are proposed to quantify and measure the dynamic thermal properties of clothing ensembles. Experiments showed that the new index is correlated to the changing rate of the body temperature of the wearer, which is an important indicator of thermal transient comfort. Clothing ensembles having higher values of the index means the wearer will have a faster changing rate of body temperature and shorter duration before approaching a dangerous thermo-physiological state, when he changes from 'resting' to 'exercising' mode. Clothing should therefore be designed to reduce the value of the index.