Predicted Thermal Sensation Index for the Hot Environment in the Spinning Workshop

The spinning workshop is the most typical cotton textile workshop in the textile mill and is characterized by the feature of high temperature all the year. To effectively evaluate the general thermal sensation of the textile worker exposed to the hot environment in the spinning workshop, a new heat index named predicted thermal sensation (PTS) index was proposed in this paper. The PTS index based on the heat balance equation can be derived by the empirical equations of air temperature and heat imbalance. A one-month-long continuous research was carried out to investigate the actual thermal condition and judge the validity of the PTS index. Actual workshop temperatures in the spinning workshop during the measuring period were all above 32°C, belonging to extreme hot environment. The calculated thermal sensation by the PTS index is very close to the actual thermal sensation, which means that the PTS index can accurately estimate the actual thermal sensation of the textile workers exposed to the hot environment in the spinning workshop. Compared to other indices, the PTS index can more effectively predict the mean thermal response of a large group of textile workers exposed to the hot environment in the spinning workshop.