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Environmental Design
Published in Nancy J. Stone, Chaparro Alex, Joseph R. Keebler, Barbara S. Chaparro, Daniel S. McConnell, Introduction to Human Factors, 2017
Nancy J. Stone, Chaparro Alex, Joseph R. Keebler, Barbara S. Chaparro, Daniel S. McConnell
In cold environments, we desire greater insulation so that our body heat does not exchange with the colder surrounding environment by means of radiation, convection, conduction, or evaporation. Approximately one-quarter inch (0.62 cm) of insulation is about one clo unit of insulation (Bensel & Santee, 1997). Thicker clothing and less permeable clothing reduce heat loss through convection and reduced evaporation. The process of convection helps us reduce heat loss when we wear a sweater or jacket. When we wear a sweater, the initially colder air is trapped within the sweater as well as between our sweater and body. Heat transferred by convection from our body warms this trapped air, which becomes comparable to our body temperature and insulates us. If the trapped air escapes too quickly, we lose this insulating effect. This trapped air effect is how wet suits worn by divers function. The wet suit traps a thin layer of water between the suit and the body, which is warmed by convection, keeping the diver warm. The thickness of the wet suits varies, depending on the temperature of the water environment, but it is the thin layer of water between the wet suit and the diver’s body that is critical for insulating the diver.
Characterisation of regional skin temperatures in recreational surfers wearing a 2-mm wetsuit
Published in Ergonomics, 2018
Luis J. Corona, Grant H. Simmons, Jeff A. Nessler, Sean C. Newcomer
Wearing a neoprene wetsuit, as an additional layer of insulation on the skin surface, is a convenient means to reduce convective heat loss (Wakabayashi et al. 2008). The neoprene material allows small amounts of water to filter through the wetsuit without escaping, thus providing a layer of warmer water against the body (Naebe et al. 2013). This layer of water reaches a temperature close to the body’s skin temperature, creating a thermal protection barrier (Naebe et al. 2013). Several previous studies indicate that this thermal barrier generated by a wetsuit can facilitate longer immersion periods and lead to other physiological benefits (Kang et al. 1983; Shiraki et al. 1986). For example, previous research has investigated the impact of wearing a wetsuit on skin temperatures across the body during complete immersion (Wakabayashi et al. 2008; Riera et al. 2014). Findings from these studies suggest that wearing an additional layer of thermal protection is an efficient way to maintain body temperature. In addition, experiments focusing on triathletes found that subjects wearing wetsuits retained higher skin temperatures during the swimming phase when compared to those without a wetsuit (Groeller 1990). Although evidence shows that wetsuits assist with thermoregulation, regional skin temperatures differ across the body in thermoneutral environments (Huizenga et al. 2004) and adjust during exercise as a thermoregulatory response (Fernandes et al. 2016).