Estimation of respiratory heat flows in prediction of heat strain among Taiwanese steel workers

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• 作者：Wang-Yi Chen ; Yow-Jer Juang ; Jung-Yu Hsieh…
• 关键词：Iron and steel casting ; Required sweat rate ; Predicted heat strain ; Respiratory heat flow ; Metabolic rate
• 刊名：International Journal of Biometeorology
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：61
• 期：1
• 页码：115-125
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Earth and Environmental Science
• 刊物主题：Environment, general; Biological and Medical Physics, Biophysics; Meteorology; Animal Physiology; Plant Physiology; Environmental Health;
• 出版者：Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• ISSN：1432-1254
• 卷排序：61

文摘

International Organization for Standardization 7933 standard provides evaluation of required sweat rate (RSR) and predicted heat strain (PHS). This study examined and validated the approximations in these models estimating respiratory heat flows (RHFs) via convection (C_res) and evaporation (E_res) for application to Taiwanese foundry workers. The influence of change in RHF approximation to the validity of heat strain prediction in these models was also evaluated. The metabolic energy consumption and physiological quantities of these workers performing at different workloads under elevated wet-bulb globe temperature (30.3 ± 2.5 °C) were measured on-site and used in the calculation of RHFs and indices of heat strain. As the results show, the RSR model overestimated the C_res for Taiwanese workers by approximately 3 % and underestimated the E_res by 8 %. The C_res approximation in the PHS model closely predicted the convective RHF, while the E_res approximation over-predicted by 11 %. Linear regressions provided better fit in C_res approximation (R2 = 0.96) than in E_res approximation (R2 ≤ 0.85) in both models. The predicted C_res deviated increasingly from the observed value when the WBGT reached 35 °C. The deviations of RHFs observed for the workers from those predicted using the RSR or PHS models did not significantly alter the heat loss via the skin, as the RHFs were in general of a level less than 5 % of the metabolic heat consumption. Validation of these approximations considering thermo-physiological responses of local workers is necessary for application in scenarios of significant heat exposure.