Parallel simulation model for heat and moisture transfer of clothed human body

The heat and moisture transfer performance in clothed human body affects human life quality (e.g., comfort and health) directly. Accurate modeling and highly efficient simulation of the heat and moisture transfer mechanisms in clothed human body is helpful to enhance the human life quality. In this paper, we first describe a heat and moisture transfer simulation model of clothed human body, which comprises the George Fu’s human thermal physiological model and a 3D heat and moisture transfer model in clothing, and the thermoregulation behaviors as well as the heat transfer mechanisms are taken into consideration. Then according to the physiological and geometrical features of human body, a parallel algorithm for the heat and moisture transfer simulation in clothed human body is proposed. The SPMD framework has been utilized for data parallel. At last, case studies with different environment scenes are presented. The visual simulated results are displayed, and the parallel performance is discussed.

\(\rho _{\mathrm{t}}\) :

Tissue density

\(\rho _{\mathrm{b}}\) :

Blood density

\(\mu \) :

Blood viscosity

\(\varepsilon \) :

Porosity of the fabric

\(\varepsilon _{\mathrm{a}}\) :

Volume fraction of water vapor

\(\varepsilon _{\mathrm{l}}\) :

Volume fraction of liquid phase

\(\varepsilon _{\mathrm{f}}\) :

Volume fraction of fibers

\(\lambda _{\mathrm{v}}\) :

Heat of sorption or desorption of vapor by fibers

\(\lambda _{\mathrm{l}}\) :

Heat of sorption or desorption of liquid by fibers

\(\varGamma _{\mathrm{f}}\) :

Effective sorption rate of the moisture

\(\varGamma _{\mathrm{lg}}\) :

Evaporation/condensation rate of the liquid/vapor

\(\varGamma _{\mathrm{R}}\) :

Heat radiation

\(\tau _{\mathrm{a}}\) :

Effective tortuosity of the fabric for water vapor diffusion

\(\tau _\mathrm{l}\) :

Effective tortuosity of the fabric for liquid water diffusion

\(\xi _1\) :

Proportions of moisture sorption at fiber surface covered by water vapor

\(\xi _2\) :

Proportions of moisture sorption at fiber surface covered by liquid water

\(\rho _\mathrm{l}\) :

Density of the liquid water

\(\kappa _1\) :

Transfer proportions of water vapor

\(\kappa _2\) :

Transfer proportions of liquid water

\(c_\mathrm{t}\) :

Heat capacity of the tissue

\(c_{\mathrm{b,p}}\) :

Heat capacity of the blood

\(q_\mathrm{b}\) :

Heat carried into the tissue by capillary blood

\(q_\mathrm{m}\) :

Metabolic heat generation

\(q_\mathrm{a}\) :

Heat transfer between tissue and arterial blood flow

\(q_\mathrm{v}\) :

Heat transfer between tissue and venous blood flow

\(q_{\mathrm{bd}}\) :

Heat transfer between tissue and blood, it equals \(q_\mathrm{a}\) or \(q_\mathrm{v}\)

\(q_{\mathrm{res}}\) :

Heat transfer between tissue and respiratory tract

\(m_{\mathrm{res}}\) :

Temperature of the fabric

\(r_0\) :

Radius of blood vessel

\(v_{\mathrm{bl}}\) :

Mean blood velocity in the blood vessel

\(v_{\mathrm{res}}\) :

Air velocity in the respiratory tract

\(D_{\mathrm{ab}}\) :

Temperature of the fabric

\(A_\mathrm{b}\) :

Cross-sectional area of large blood vessel

\(A_{\mathrm{res}}\) :

Cross-sectional area of the respiratory tract

\(T_\mathrm{t}\) :

Tissue temperature

\(T_\mathrm{b}\) :

Blood temperature

P :

Blood pressure

\(W_{\mathrm{air}}\) :

Humidity ratio for the air in the respiratory tract

\(C_\mathrm{a}\) :

Water vapor concentration in the air filling the inter-fiber void space

\(C^*_\mathrm{a}\) :

Saturated water vapor concentration in the air filling the inter-fiber void space

\(C_\mathrm{v}\) :

Volumetric heat capacity of the fabric

\(D_\mathrm{a}\) :

Diffusion coefficient of water vapor in the fibers of the fabric

\(D_\mathrm{l}\) :

Diffusion coefficient of liquid water in the fibers of the fabric

K :

Effective thermal conductivity of the fabric

\(T_\mathrm{f}\) :

Temperature of the fabric

\(P_\mathrm{m}\) :

Proportions of moisture vapor heat loss from skin

\(P_\mathrm{h}\) :

Proportions of dry heat loss from skin

\(H_\mathrm{t}\) :

Heat conduction coefficient of air

\(H_\mathrm{m}\) :

Mass transfer coefficient

\(E_\mathrm{t}\) :

The evaporation heat loss of body tissue

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61672547), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (No. 2015B010129008) and Doctoral Start-up Foundation of Hebei GEO University (No. BQ2018027). Ruomei Wang is the corresponding author.

Authors and Affiliations

1. School of Management Science and Engineering, Hebei GEO University, Shijiazhuang, 050031, China

   Nan Jia, Jiapei Li & Haigang An

2. School of Data and Computer Science, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

   Yuan Huang & Ruomei Wang

3. National Engineering Research Center of Digital Life, Guangzhou, 510006, China

   Ruomei Wang

4. Second Hospital, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, 050017, China

   Xiaomin Jia

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ruomei Wang.

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