Experimental study on occupants' thermal comfort in railway vehicles (Verification of the applicability of PMV/PPD to main line vehicles in the summer)

Abstract

In this study, the relation between the thermal environment and the thermal comfort of occupants in a main line vehicle in the summer was investigated. At first, to understand the characteristics of the thermal environment in a main line vehicle, a field survey was conducted by measuring the temperature and humidity in regular passenger services from the morning to the night. The observation range of the temperature was from 23°C to 28°C, and that of the humidity was from 38%rh to 68%rh. Then, to obtain the fundamental data about the occupants’ thermal comfort, a subjective experiment in which 44 subjects in total participated was carried out. The subjects rode a main line vehicle stationed at a rolling stock center, and they experienced the temperature changing approximately in the range observed in the field survey and answered the questionnaires about their thermal comfort. Furthermore, the relationships between the thermal indices called PMV/PPD and the subjective evaluation values were analyzed. As a result, it was indicated that the error of the PPD in predicting the percentage of dissatisfied subjects became large in the range PMV>0, where the effect of the sweat sensation became significant. However, the PPD agreed well with the actual percentage of people who reported to have the feeling of ‘slightly cold’, ‘cold’ or ‘slightly hot’, ‘hot’. Our results suggest that the PPD can be used as an index of the variability of thermal sensation, but not as an index of thermal comfort in a main line vehicle in the summer; in order to use the PPD as an index of thermal comfort all the year around, it should be corrected taking into account the seasonal characteristics of the relation between the PMV and the actual percentage of dissatisfied occupants.

Keywords

• railway vehicle
• thermal environment
• thermal sensation
• thermal comfort
• pmv
• ppd