Breathing thermal manikins for indoor environment assessment: important characteristics and requirements

Recently breathing thermal manikins have been developed and used for indoor environment measurement, evaluation and optimization as well as validation of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) predictions of airflow around a human body. Advances in the assessment of occupants¿ thermal comfort and perceived air quality by means of breathing thermal manikins have been made as well. In order to perform accurate measurements and realistic evaluation and assessment, the design and characteristics of a manikin must comply with certain requirements. The most important of these, such as number, size and shape of body segments, control mode, breathing simulation, etc. are discussed and specified in this paper.