Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/R03495/01
Title:	Asymmetric Radiant Fields & Human Thermal Comfort
Principal Investigator:	Fiala, Dr D
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Institute of Energy and Sustainable Dev
Organisation:	De Montfort University
Scheme:	Fast Stream
Starts:	15 March 2001	Ends:	14 March 2004	Value (£):	63,057
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Building Ops & Management
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Construction No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Asymmetric thermal and solar radiation is a substantial issue with human thermal comfort inside buildings, cars, aircraft cabins and other artificial climates. Even when space air is maintained at a comfortable temperature, occupants may experience significant discomfort eg due to direct solar radiation which may subject parts of the human body to radiant temperatures above 60(C. Modelling human responses to asymmetric radiation is, therefore, an important challenge for current thermal comfort research.International standards specify 'environmental' limits to deal with human acceptability of asymmetric radiant fields due to cold and warm surfaces. These limits are, however, subject to restrictions and limited applicability. Hence, instead of considering 'environmental' limits the nature of local comfort effects under asymmetric radiant circumstances will be investigated and the specifically human aspects of radiant heat exchange considered. The model will enable experimental results to be generalised and human comfort responses to be predicted even for complex scenarios of asymmetric conditions occurring in practice such as combinations of direct and diffuse solar radiation, hot radiators, cold walls and windows, etc. To enable use in the built environment sector the model will be linked with programs predicting dynamically the required environmental conditions inside buildings.
Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Organisation Website:	http://www.dmu.ac.uk