TEE (THERMAL ENVIRONMENT ASSESSMENT): A FRIENDLY TOOL FOR THERMAL ENVIRONMENT EVALUATION

Beginning from the twentieth century the thermal sensation evaluation and the characterisation of thermal comfort conditions on a rational basis were plane out for leading only in its second part to the definition of comfort and stress indexes up till now used. For such reason, depending on the nature of microclimate it became necessary classifying thermal environments in “moderate” and “severe”. In moderate environments the main designer goal is assuring the thermal comfort for the occupants while, in severe ones, protecting the health of workers. The rational approach for the thermal environment assessment requires: a. an in-depth physiologic analysis of the human body behaviour in order to predict the subject response to the thermal environment; b. a detailed analysis of the heat-exchange mechanisms regulating the energy balance of the human body. In both cases, the right thermal environment assessment needs the implementation of mathematical models often hard to solve, for the experts also. Thus the evaluation of a comfort or stress index also may become a serious problem without a suitable software able to give a fast and clear answer to both the ergonomic specialist and the not skilled technicians.