The air conditioning system is becoming more and more a competitive issue, moving from optional to standard vehicle equipment. Therefore, also thermal comfort level is moving from simple air temperature measurement to a more systemic approach, where the contribution of every element of the car cabin has to be taken in account. Improving contact thermal sensation with the seat is one of the main issues to improve overall thermal comfort in transportation. A method has been defined to assess the perceived thermal quality of seats taking into account the sweating human thermoregulatory process. The method is based on a thermal manikin representing a torso able to simulate in a portion of the back the sweating phenomena. The first part of the paper is focused on the instrument and developed measuring method description. The second part is dedicated to detail the correlation between experimental measurements and subjective quality index obtained during an extensive on-road panel test. (A)
Abstract