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In order to predict survival when exposed to extreme environmental conditions for prolonged periods of time, ThermoAnalytics has developed the world’s most advanced physiology definitions replete with feedback loops and circulatory responses.
Utilize Environmental and Physiology Models
Predicting human thermal survival involves simulation across several distinct domains to be computed simultaneously – the environmental conditions over time, a detailed human physiology model that includes thermoregulation, and clothing models to capture both heat transfer and mass transfer resistance. Humans are thermally quite fragile and many critical biological processes are highly sensitive to temperature, including cognition. Thermal survival is limited to the study of how the body responds to dehydration, hypo- and hyperthermia, ignoring the situational effects of reduced cognitive capacity on the choices an individual makes when overheated or suffering from cold exposure. However, human effectiveness can also be evaluated from the results of a survivability analysis.
Predicting Survivability with Thermal Analysis
In order to predict survival when exposed to extreme environmental conditions for prolonged periods of time, ThermoAnalytics has developed the world’s most advanced physiology definitions replete with feedback loops and circulatory responses such as blood perfusion, vasodilatation, and vasoconstriction. With appropriate scaling of geometry to represent a 5th to 95th percentile human body mass, human survivability can be accurately simulated for a wide range of purposes: man-overboard studies, industrial safety, and aircraft environmental control system (ECS) failure for FAA certification. For new or experimental aircraft, the ECS failure simulation methodology developed by ThermoAnalytics has been accepted by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Because thermal survivability analysis is depending on accurate environmental loading on the virtual human, a transient conjugate analysis of convection, conduction, and radiation, using TAITherm software is required. Furthermore, your environment’s geometry, such as an aircraft cockpit, operator station, or windowed building with solar loads are all relevant to computing the net energy loads on various body segments. Human survivability is essentially a post-processing analysis of the extended transient simulation, and thus our human model computes temperatures for individual geometry elements, and integrates these temperatures into body segments and an overall composite result.
Include Gear and Materials in Analysis
Survivability is also affected by clothing and equipment such as firefighting gear, clothing layers, and pilot helmets. Our human thermal models include layering of clothing on each body segment, and couples with perspiration rates to account for cooling by evaporation. Environmental humidity thus plays a critical factor in certain situations, which would also impact heat losses due to respiration.
Analyze Human Effectiveness
As global leaders in human thermal survival, our staff can provide a list of relevant technical publications and offers a no-obligation review of requirements to qualified organizations. Contact us to see what our technology can do for your organization.
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Accurate Comfort Predictions
Simulating human thermal comfort will provide the information needed to optimize the user experience and ensure product acceptance.
Our engineers can help you create a thermal simulation using TAIThermTM with the Human Thermal Extension. This will help you understand how altering the variables of your design affects the overall comfort of the human within your design.
