Building and Environment 69 (2013) 72e80

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Building and Environment

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The combined effect of temperature, relative humidity and work

intensity on human strain in hot and humid environments
Xinli Shi, Neng Zhu, Guozhong Zheng*
School of Environment Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Hot and humid environments are prevalent in certain workplaces, such as deep mines, aviations, military
Received 20 March 2013 facilities and so on. When working in these environments, heat strain may be produced on the human
Received in revised form body, and the work productivity and human health will be affected, so it is necessary to study the impact
22 July 2013
mechanism caused by the influencing factors on the human body. In this paper, a climate chamber was
Accepted 25 July 2013
built to simulate the hot and humid environments. The multiple regressions of physiological parameters
related to temperature and relative humidity were obtained, and the combined effect caused by tem-
Keywords:
perature and relative humidity on the human physiological responses was proven. The values of com-
Hot and humid environment
Temperature
bined effect, temperature effect and humidity effect were quantified, and then the work effect was
Relative humidity added. Finally, considering the combined effect between temperature and relative humidity, the
Combined effect enthalpy of air was adopted to reflect the effect of these two environment factors comprehensively. The
study in this paper helps people understand the effects caused by environment and work intensity on
human strain better and it provides a practical method for the future research.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction different heat loads on vigilance and complex cognitive tasks. 9

Environment with the temperature above 32
C and relative
humidity above 60% can be considered as hot and humid envi-
ronment [1]. With the rapid developments of economy and tech-
nology, hot and humid environments are prevalent in workplaces,
such as steel mills, laundries, glass and ceramic units, deep mines,
aviations, metallurgy manufactures, rubber foundries, dye houses,
military facilities and some outdoor sport activities [2e4].
When working in hot and humid environments, the physio-
logical parameters such as heart rate, body temperature, blood
pressure and sweat production will obviously change [5]. In hot and
humid environments, more blood is provided by the heart to the
skin to discharge the extra heat to the relative cooler environment,
and the sweating is strengthened to cool the human body. If the
extra heat is not fully dissipated, heat storage will occur and the
core temperature will increase [6e8]. Heat exposure will cause
cramps, heat stroke, heat exhaustion, and even exacerbate the
underlying medical conditions, such as lung or heart disease [9,10].
There are a lot of attempts to study the human responses in hot
and humid environments. Epstein et al. [11] studied the effect of
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ86 22 27407800; fax: þ86 22 87401883.
E-mail address: ansystem@126.com (G. Zheng).
subjects were asked to expose to three climatic conditions and
shoot at targets of three different sizes randomly. The results
indicated that the heat load had no effect on the easy work but had
a great effect on the difficult work, in addition, the effect of the task
intensity and heat load on deteriorating performance are syner-
gistic. Vangelova et al. [12] investigated the dyslipidemia (abnormal
blood lipids) of the industrial workers in hot environments. 102
male industrial workers exposed to heat and a control group of 102
male workers were studied. The results showed that the heat
exposed workers run a higher risk of becoming dyslipidemic than
the control group. Brake and Bates [13] monitored the deep body
core temperatures of 36 industrial workers continuously, and the
results indicated that the values regularly exceeded the commonly
recommended limits (a temperature of 38.0
C or an increase
of þ1
C) with the average maximum deep body core temperature
was 38.3
C, the maximum temperature rise was 1.4
C, and the
maximum heat storage was 431 kJ. Kalkowsky and Kampmann [14]
carried out a study to record the physiological strain of miners. 38
miners were asked to participate during 125 shifts, and the heart
rate and rectal temperature were measured continuously. The re-
sults showed that the average heart rate and rectal temperature
during all shifts were 102.8 beats/min and 37.7
C, the mean sweat
loss per shift was 3436 g and the mean sweat rate was 494 g/h. Saha
et al. [15] evaluated the physiological strain of different categories

0360-1323/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2013.07.016
 X. Shi et al. / Building and Environment 69 (2013) 72e80
of miners. The results indicated that the oxygen consumption
ranged from 4.96 kcal/min to 5.47 kcal/min, and the heart rate
revealed that the intensity of the work was classified into heavy and
very heavy for the miners.
Among the previous studies, people always focused on the
physiological responses and subsequent dangers when working in
hot and humid environments and ignored the influencing factors.
The physiological responses of human body to the thermal stress
were summarized as heat strain, and the heat strain is affected by
environment factors and muscle activities [16,17]. So in this paper,
the influence mechanism of the environment and work factors on
the human body will be studied to help people understand the
effects better.
The structure of this paper is divided into three parts: one is to
prove the existence of combined effect caused by temperature
and relative humidity, one is to quantify the effects caused by
environment factors and work factors, and the last one is to find
an index to reflect the temperature and relative humidity
comprehensively.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Experiment
2.1.1. Chamber
To simulate the hot and humid environments, a stainless
steel chamber with the size of 5 m  4 m  3 m
(length  width  height) was built. The heat source of the
chamber was provided by stainless steel flake-shaped heaters and
the humidity source was provided by stainless steel humidifiers.
The temperature and relative humidity in the chamber could be
adjusted from 20
C to 85
C and 20%e98%. There was a tem-
perature and humidity probe on the top of the chamber to
monitor the real-time temperature and relative humidity. To
maintain the temperature and relative humidity, the chamber
was airtight and well insulated. In addition, to ensure the security
of the people in the chamber, an alarm function and protection
system was installed in the chamber.
2.1.2. Subjects
To ensure the success of the experiment, the subjects should
have good health and have no disease histories. In this experiment,
5 male university students were selected as the subjects, and their
average age, height, weight and body surface area were 23.8  0.4
years, 1.72  0.05 m, 64.7  10.8 kg and 1.75  0.15 m2.
2.1.3. Parameters and instruments
To study the relationships between the physiological re-
sponses and their influencing factors, the physiological parame-
ters and their corresponding instruments in the experiment are
shown in Table 1. In the table, the rectal temperature and heart
rate were used to reflect the physiological responses and
Table 1
The physiological parameters and corresponding instruments in the experiment.
Physiological Instrument Model Range
parameter
Rectal Electronic MC-347 32.0e42.0
C
temperature thermometer (Omron)
Heart rate Blood pressure HEM-7112 40-180beats/min
monitor (Omron)
Weight Electronic TCS 150 0e150 kg
scale (Shanghai
Yousheng)
73
calculate the PSI, and the weight was used for the calculation of
sweat rate.
2.1.4. Experiment condition
To study the effects of temperature, relative humidity and work
intensity on human heat strain, the experiment was conducted
with different combinations of temperatures, relative humidity and
work intensities. The environment conditions are shown in Table 2.
During the experiment, the work intensities were divided
into three kinds [18,19]: light work, moderate work and heavy
work. Sitting was selected as a light work, running on a treadmill
with a speed of 3.5 km/h was considered as a moderate work,
and running with a speed of 5.5 km/h was regarded as a heavy
work. In the real life, office work would be a light work, picking
fruit or transporting medium heavy items may be a moderate
work, and mining or transporting heavy items would be a heavy
work [19].
All subjects were asked to take part in all types of experiment
conditions.
2.1.5. Experiment process
In order to stabilize the physiological parameters, the subjects
were asked to rest for 20e40 min before the experiment. After
entering the chamber, the physiological parameters of the subjects
were measured, and then the work started. During the experiment,
the subjects were required to work for 80 min and they had a 10-
min rest for every 20-min work. The rectal temperature, heart
rate and nude body weight were measured during the break. The
subjects were allowed to drink water during the work, and the
weights of water they had drunk were also measured in the 10-min
rest. The subjects were not requested to insist to the end of the 80-
min work, and when they could not persist, their physiological
parameters and work time were recorded immediately.
Before the experiment, the subjects were requested to sign an
agreement of joining the experiment. To ensure the subjects were
familiar with the experiment process, they were trained before the
experiment, and they were also asked to have good sleeps and
healthy eating habits during the experiment period.
The experiment scheme and process were approved by the
ethics committee of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese
Medicine and the grant number was TJUTCM-EC20110004.
2.2. Commonly used indices in hot and humid environments
2.2.1. Sweat rate
The ability of human body to dissipate heat in hot environments
mainly depends on the evaporation of sweat, thus the sweat pro-
duction is essential to prevent the hyperthermia and heat-related
illness [20,21]. Sweat rate is the sweat quantity of human body
per unit time and it reflects the ability of human body to remove
the extra heat by sweating. The sweat rate could be calculated as
follows:


SR ¼ W0 þ WH2 O  Wt t (1)
where SR is sweat rate, g/min; W0 is body weight in 0 min, g; WH2 O
is the weight of water drunk during the work from 0 min to t min, g;
Accuracy
Wt is body weight in t min, g; t is work time, min.
0.1
C
Table 2
5% Environment conditions in the experiment.
10 g Parameter Condition


Temperature ( C) 32 36 40
Relative humidity (%) 40 60 90 40 60 90 40 60 90
74 X. Shi et al. / Building and Environment 69 (2013) 72e80

Table 3 bound of rectal temperature; the value of 180 beats/min is the

The results of multiple regressions. higher bound of heart rate and the value of 5 is the weight of every
Work Coefficient Rectal Heart rate Sweat rate PSI physiological parameter in the calculation of PSI.
intensity temperature The PSI is developed based on rectal temperature and heart rate,
Light work a / / 0.840 / and it depicts the combined strain caused by thermoregulatory and
b 0.063 / 1.188 / cardiovascular systems. Therefore the PSI is able to analyze the
c 1.754E6 3.068E5 2.304E5 / physiological state of workers and reflect the intensity of heat
d / 6.205E4 / /
strain.
e 0.001 / 0.028 0.003
f 37.468 48.303 40.674 4.885
R* 0.989 0.986 0.993 0.916 2.3. Statistical analysis
Moderate a / 3.851 0.621 /
work b 0.057 / / /
The multiple linear regression analysis was used to fit the
c / / / 8.304E6
d / / 8.619E5 1.024E4 models between physiological parameters and environment fac-
e 0.002 0.015 / / tors, and Spearman’s rank correlation analysis was selected to
f 36.998 63.7618 16.6328 1.847 study the relationships between enthalpy and physiological pa-
R 0.967 0.950 0.951 0.829
rameters. The two analysis methods were all performed by SPSS
Heavy work a / 3.396 / /
b / / / /
17.0, and all statistical analyses were performed at a level of 95%
c / / / / statistical significance.
d 1.120E5 4.661E4 1.353E4 4.414E5
e / / / /
3. The combined effect of temperature, relative humidity and
f 37.531 33.800 5.502 1.085
R 0.686 0.808 0.855 0.743 work intensity
*
Note: the linear correlation coefficient.
3.1. The effects of environment factors on physiological parameters

2.2.2. PSI In order to study the effects of environment factors on the hu-
PSI is a physiological strain index proposed by Moran et al. man body in hot and humid environments, a cubic polynomial of
[22,23] to evaluate the heat strain, and it can be obtained by the physiological parameters related to temperature and relative hu-
following formula: midity was established as Eq. (3) (the coefficients of T2, H2, TH2 and
T3 were almost zero, thus the terms in the model included T, H, H3,
PSI ¼ 5ðRTt  RT0 Þð39:5  RT0 Þ1 T2H, TH):

þ 5ðHRt  HR0 Þð180  HR0 Þ1 (2) PP ¼ aT þ bH þ cH 3 þ dT 2 H þ eTH þ f (3)

where RTt and HRt are rectal temperature (
C) and heart rate (beats/ where PP is the physiological parameter; T is the temperature of
min) in time t; RT0 and HR0 are rectal temperature (
C) and heart environment,
C; H is the relative humidity of environment, %; a, b,
rate (beats/min) in the initial time; the value of 39.5
C is the higher c, d, e and f are the coefficients of variables.

Light work
A 0.0025
B 0.054 Moderate work
Heavy work
0.0020 0.045

0.0015 0.036
S TH

S TH

0.0010 0.027

0.0005 0.018

0.0000 0.009
32 34 36 38 40 32 36 40
Temperature(º C) Temperature(º C)
C 0.030
D 0.0084

0.025 0.0072

0.020 0.0060
S TH

S TH

0.015 0.0048

0.010 0.0036

0.005 0.0024
32 36 40 32 36 40
Temperature(º C) Temperature(º C)

Fig. 1. The results of STH for every physiological parameter (A: rectal temperature; B: heart rate; C: sweat rate; D: PSI).
 X. Shi et al. / Building and Environment 69 (2013) 72e80 75

According to the above regression model, the effect of temper- Environment conditions
Basic
condition Temperature effect
ature and relative humidity on physiological parameters could be
32°C-40% 32°C-60% 32°C-90% 32°C-40%
calculated as follows by obtaining the mixed partial derivative [24]: First line

vPP
STH ¼ SHT ¼ ¼ 2dT þ e (4) 36°C-40% 36°C-60% 36°C-90% Humidity First
vTvH effect column

Intersection of
In the experiment, the physiological parameters at the termi- 40°C-40% 40°C-60% 40°C-90% the rank
nated time of the work were adopted to represent the physiological Comparison
responses. The results of the multiple regressions between envi- condition

ronment parameters and physiological parameters are shown in Fig. 2. Basic condition and comparison conditions in the experiment.
Table 3.
According to the data in Table 3 and Eq. (4), the values of mixed
partial derivative could be calculated and the results are shown in when the CED was smaller than 0, thus the combined effect was
Fig. 1. negative.
As shown in Fig. 1, the values of mixed partial derivative for the For all calculations of combined effect, the physiological pa-
four physiological parameters were all positive, thus there were rameters at the terminated time of the work in comparison con-
same fluctuant trends between temperature, relative humidity and ditions were regarded as the basic data, and physiological
STH. So the combined effect between temperature and relative parameters at the corresponding time in basic condition were
humidity existed. adopted to finish the analysis.
In this part, 32
Ce40% was adopted as the basic condition, and
3.2. Combined effect the other conditions were regarded as comparison conditions. The
basic condition and comparison conditions are shown in Fig. 2 [26].
The existence of combined effect caused by temperature and The physiological parameters of the basic condition in 20-min, 40-
relative humidity on physiological parameters was proven, and it min, 60-min and 80-min are shown in Table 4, and the physiolog-
was necessary to quantify it. To simplify the quantifying process, a ical parameters of the comparison conditions at the terminated
quiet or light work (65 W/m2 below) with ordinary clothing time are shown in Table 5.
(0.5 w 1.2 clo) is always adopted as a basic condition [16], and the According to the Eqs. (5)e(8), Fig. 2 and the data in the basic
other conditions are adopted as the comparison conditions. In this condition and comparison conditions in Tables 4 and 5, the tem-
paper, the change values of physiological parameters are used to perature effect, humidity effect, combined effect and the degree of
represent the effects caused by environment factors. combined effect in different work intensities could be calculated,
and the results are shown in Table 6.
3.2.1. The combined effect of temperature and relative humidity As shown in Table 6, the temperature effect on the four physi-
To quantify the combined effect, a model of the combined effect ological parameters increased with the increase of temperature,
caused by temperature and relative humidity was built as follows [25]: and the humidity effect increased with the increase of relative
The difference of temperature between the comparison condi- humidity. However, for heart rate in 40
Ce90%-heavy, PSI in
tion and basic condition was as follows: 40
Ce90%-moderate and 40
Ce90%-heavy, the effects may
decrease, the reason was that the environment intensity was
DT ¼ Tt  T0 (5)
beyond the thermoregulatory ability of human body, and people
ended the work in advance. In addition, the reason for the low
The difference of relative humidity between the comparison
humidity effect on sweat rate in 40
Ce90%-heavy was that the
condition and basic condition was shown below:
work time was short and the humidity was high enough to influ-
DH ¼ Ht  H0 (6) ence the sweat rate in that condition.
According to the data in Table 6, it could also be concluded
The difference of physiological parameters between the com- that the combined effect on rectal temperature, sweat rate and
parison condition and basic condition was as follows: PSI increased with the increase of temperature and relative hu-
midity under most conditions, and the similar regularity was
DPP ¼ PPt  PP0 ¼ DPPT þ DPPH þ DPPC (7) found on heart rate when performing moderate work and heavy
work.
where Tt and Ht are the temperature (
C) and relative humidity (%)
in comparison condition; T0 and H0 are the temperature (
C) and
relative humidity (%) in basic condition; PPt and PP0 are the phys- Table 4
Physiological parameters in basic condition.
iological parameters in comparison condition and basic condition;
DPPT is the change value of physiological parameter caused by the Work Time Rectal Heart rate Sweat PSI
increase of temperature, which is defined as temperature effect in intensity (min) temperature (
C) (beats/min) rate (g/min)
this paper; DPPH is the change value of physiological parameter Light 20 36.88 71.8 3.65 0.92
caused by the increase of relative humidity, which is defined as 40 36.76 71.4 4.02 1.20
humidity effect; DPPC is the combined effect caused by the com- 60 36.82 68.2 3.50 1.22
80 36.78 71.2 3.63 1.16
bined change of temperature and relative humidity. Moderate 20 37.24 84.6 6.90 0.81
The degree of combined effect was defined as follows: 40 37.4 85.4 7.20 1.16
60 37.46 83.6 7.70 1.19
DPPC DPP  DPPT  DPPH 80 37.48 81.4 7.63 1.12
CED ¼  100% ¼  100% (8)
DPP DPP Heavy 20 37.46 87.8 12.00 1.25
40 37.68 87.2 10.85 1.68
60 37.74 93.8 10.85 2.12
when the CED was equal to 0, there was no combined effect; when
80 37.8 93.2 10.79 2.22
the CED was larger than 0, the combined effect was positive; and
76 X. Shi et al. / Building and Environment 69 (2013) 72e80

Table 5 larger than the accumulation of the two effects for rectal tempera-
Physiological parameters at the terminated time in every comparison condition. ture and PSI, such as in 36
Ce90%-moderate, the combined effects
Work Work Time Rectal Heart rate Sweat rate PSI on rectal temperature and PSI were 0.755
C and 3.87 respectively,
intensity condition (min) temperature (beats/min) (g/min) and the CEDs were 50.5% and 74.22%. For sweat rate, under most
(
C) conditions, the combined effect and temperature effect were larger
Light 36
Ce60% 80 37.08 95.4 4.48 0.40 than humidity effect, thus the effect of humidity on sweat rate was
36
Ce90% 80 37.66 99 12.61 1.42 small.
40
Ce60% 80 37.52 99.6 8.77 1.94
40
Ce90% 60 38.14 114.2 19.43 3.18
Moderate 36
Ce60% 80 37.825 99.5 10.17 1.80 3.2.2. The combined effect of temperature, relative humidity and
36
Ce90% 80 38.975 137.5 18.28 6.33 work intensity
40
Ce60% 80 38.75 132.5 15.78 5.81 The combined effect of temperature and relative humidity on
40
Ce90% 40 39.3 139 19.93 7.18
physiological parameters was discussed above. The physiological
Heavy 36
Ce60% 80 38.46 119 14.05 4.35
36
Ce90% 40 39.15 137 24.96 7.04
parameters were not only affected by environment factors, they
40
Ce60% 60 39.4 154 20.40 8.28 were also influenced by the work factor, so the work intensity was
40
Ce90% 20 38.6 139.4 23.20 5.75 added in this part to analyze the combined effect caused by these
three factors.
The model of the combined effect was built as follows:
It could also be found from the values of effects, for rectal tem- The difference of temperature between the comparison condi-
perature, heart rate and PSI, when the experiment intensity was tion and basic condition was calculated according to Eq. (5) and the
large, the combined effect may be larger than temperature effect difference of relative humidity between the comparison condition
and humidity effect. Moreover, the combined effect may even be and basic condition was calculated according to Eq. (6).

Table 6
The combined effect analysis of temperature and relative humidity on physiological parameters.

Physiological parameter Work intensity Work condition DPP DPPT DPPH DPPC CED(%)

Rectal temperature Light (36
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 0.3 0.44 0 0.14 46.67
(36
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 0.88 0.44 0.42 0.02 2.27
(40
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 0.74 0.52 0 0.22 29.73
(40
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 1.32 0.44 0.36 0.52 39.39
Moderate (36
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 0.345 0.32 0.08 0.055 15.94
(36
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 1.495 0.32 0.42 0.755 50.5
(40
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 1.27 0.64 0.08 0.55 43.31
(40
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 1.9 0.4 0.22 1.28 67.37
Heavy (36
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 0.66 0.3 0.06 0.3 45.45
(36
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 1.47 0.16 0.32 0.99 67.35
(40
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 1.66 0.66 0.04 0.96 57.83
(40
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 1.14 0.34 0.2 0.6 52.63
Heart rate Light (36
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 24.2 4.8 8.8 10.6 43.8
(36
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 27.8 4.8 11.4 11.6 41.73
(40
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 28.4 14.8 8.8 4.8 16.9
(40
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 46 21.6 17 7.4 16.09
Moderate (36
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 18.1 14.4 10 6.3 34.81
(36
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 56.1 14.4 15.6 26.1 46.52
(40
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 51.1 32.6 10 8.5 16.63
(40
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 53.6 20.6 5.8 27.2 50.75
Heavy (36
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 25.8 21.4 11.8 7.4 28.68
(36
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 49.8 20.2 29 0.6 1.2
(40
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 60.2 20.2 9 31 51.5
(40
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 51.6 18.6 19.8 13.2 25.58
Sweat rate Light (36
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 0.85 1.8 0.34 0.61 72.06
(36
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 8.99 1.8 1.49 5.7 63.42
(40
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 5.14 3.24 0.34 2.24 43.63
(40
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 15.93 3.57 1.55 10.82 67.89
Moderate (36
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 2.55 2.9 0.18 0.18 6.99
(36
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 10.66 2.9 3.5 4.26 39.96
(40
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 8.15 7.21 0.18 1.11 13.65
(40
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 12.73 6.35 4.35 2.03 15.91
Heavy (36
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 3.26 2 0.54 0.73 22.22
(36
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 14.11 1.05 2.68 10.39 73.6
(40
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 9.55 6.84 0.3 2.41 25.22
(40
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 11.2 3.75 0.5 7.95 70.98
PSI Light (36
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 1.57 0.32 0.78 0.47 29.85
(36
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 2.59 0.32 0.65 1.62 62.57
(40
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 3.11 0.76 0.78 1.56 50.23
(40
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 4.4 0.94 0.81 2.65 60.13
Moderate (36
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 0.68 0.55 0.61 0.47 68.92
(36
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 5.22 0.55 0.8 3.87 74.22
(40
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 4.69 2.58 0.61 1.5 32.04
(40
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 6.02 1.45 0.19 4.77 79.17
Heavy (36
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 2.13 1.48 0.82 0.17 7.92
(36
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 5.37 1.1 1.76 2.5 46.64
(40
Ce60%)e(32
Ce40%) 6.16 1.81 0.64 3.7 60.1
(40
Ce90%)e(32
Ce40%) 4.51 0.82 1 2.68 59.58
 X. Shi et al. / Building and Environment 69 (2013) 72e80 77

Table 7
The combined effect analysis of temperature, relative humidity and work intensity on physiological parameters.

Physiological parameter Work condition DPP DPPT DPPH DPPW DPPC CED (%)


Rectal temperature (36 Ce60%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 1.05 0.44 0 0.7 0.09 9.09


(36 Ce90%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 2.2 0.44 0.42 0.7 0.63 28.93


(40 Ce60%-moderate)-(32
Ce40%-light) 1.97 0.52 0 0.7 0.75 38.07


(40 Ce90%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 2.54 0.44 0.42 0.64 1.04 40.94


(36 Ce60%-heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 1.68 0.44 0 1.02 0.22 13.1


(36 Ce90%- heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 2.39 0.48 0.42 0.92 0.57 23.85


(40 Ce60%- heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 2.58 0.44 0.02 0.92 1.2 46.51


(40 Ce90%- heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 1.72 0.28 0.18 0.58 0.68 39.53


Heart rate (36 Ce60%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 28.3 4.8 8.8 10.2 4.5 15.9


(36 Ce90%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 66.3 4.8 11.4 10.2 39.9 60.18


(40 Ce60%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 61.3 14.8 8.8 10.2 27.5 44.86


(40 Ce90%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 67.6 17.4 12.8 14 23.4 34.62


(36 Ce60%-heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 47.8 4.8 8.8 22 12.2 25.52


(36 Ce90%- heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 65.6 7.4 12.8 15.8 29.6 45.12


(40 Ce60%- heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 85.8 21.6 15.2 25.6 23.4 27.27


(40 Ce90%- heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 67.6 15.6 10 16 26 38.46


Sweat rate (36 Ce60%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 6.55 1.2 1.1 4 2.45 37.37


(36 Ce90%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 14.66 1.2 1.3 4 8.16 55.66


(40 Ce60%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 12.15 2.25 1.1 4 7 57.61


(40 Ce90%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 15.9 2.6 1.6 3.18 8.52 53.62


(36 Ce60%-heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 10.43 1.2 1.1 7.16 3.16 30.34


(36 Ce90%- heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 20.94 1 1.6 6.83 11.51 54.99


(40 Ce60%- heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 16.9 5.7 0.95 7.35 2.9 17.16


(40 Ce90%- heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 19.55 2.4 0.25 8.35 8.55 43.73


PSI (36 Ce60%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 2.96 0.32 0.78 2.28 0.41 14


(36 Ce90%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 7.49 0.32 0.65 2.28 4.25 56.66


(40 Ce60%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 6.97 0.76 0.78 2.28 3.14 45.1


(40 Ce90%-moderate)e(32
Ce40%-light) 8.38 0.72 0.73 2.36 4.57 54.55


(36 Ce60%-heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 5.51 0.32 0.78 3.38 1.03 18.67


(36 Ce90%- heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 8.24 0.54 0.73 2.87 4.1 49.72


(40 Ce60%- heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 9.51 0.94 1.13 3.35 4.08 42.94


(40 Ce90%- heavy)e(32
Ce40%-light) 6.67 0.27 0.05 2.17 4.19 62.71

Table 8
Then the degree of combined effect caused by the three factors
The correlations between enthalpy and physiological parameters.
could be calculated as follows:
Rectal temperature Heart rate Sweat rate PSI

Light work 0.766** 0.691** 0.632** 0.770** DPPC DPP  DPPT  DPPH  DPPW
0.788** 0.684** 0.612** 0.793** CED ¼  100% ¼  100% (11)
Moderate work
DPP DPP
Heavy work 0.663** 0.629** 0.529** 0.704**

Note: **means the correlations between the variables are statistically significant on
the level of 0.05.
The difference of work intensity between the comparison con-
dition and basic condition was shown below:
DW ¼ Wt  W0
The difference of physiological parameters between the com-
parison condition and basic condition was below:
DPP ¼ PPt  PP0 ¼ DPPT þ DPPH þ DPPW þ DPPC
where Wt and W0 are the work intensities in comparison condition
and basic condition; DPPW is the change value of physiological
parameter caused by the change of work intensity, which is defined
as work effect.
32
Ce40%-light was selected as the basic condition, and the
other conditions were adopted as the comparison conditions. For
example, when analyzing the combined effect of temperature,
relative humidity and work intensity in 36
Ce60%-moderate, the
temperature effect could be obtained by calculating the differences
of physiological parameters in 36
Ce40%-light and 32
Ce40%-
light; the humidity effect was the differences of physiological pa-
(9)
rameters in 32
Ce60%-light and 32
Ce40%-light; and the work
effect was the differences of physiological parameters in 32
Ce
40%-moderate and 32
Ce40%-light.
According to the data in Tables 4 and 5, the combined effect of
(10) temperature, relative humidity and work intensity on physiological
parameters could be obtained and the results are shown in Table 7.
As shown in Table 7, for the four physiological parameters, the
temperature effect increased with the increase of temperature, and
the work effect increased with the increase of work intensity.
Moreover, for all physiological parameters except PSI, the humidity

Table 9
The enthalpy of the work conditions.

Temperature (
C) Relative humidity (%) Enthalpy (kJ/kg) Temperature (
C) Relative humidity (%) Enthalpy (kJ/kg)

H1 32 40 63.23 H2 36 40 74.47
H3 32 60 78.76 H4 40 40 86.66
H5 36 60 93.62 H6 32 90 102.06
H7 40 60 109.89 H8 36 90 122.34
H9 40 90 144.73
78 X. Shi et al. / Building and Environment 69 (2013) 72e80

effect increased with the increase of relative humidity. The reason
for the decrease of humidity effect on sweat rate in 40
Ce90%-
heavy was that the subjects terminated the work in advance and
the high relative humidity affected the evaporation of sweat in
human body.
According to the data in Table 7, it could also be concluded that
the combined effect on the four physiological parameters increased
with the increase of relative humidity under most conditions. In
addition, for rectal temperature and PSI, the combined effect also
increased with the increase of temperature.
It could also be found from the values of effects, work effect on
the four physiological parameters was always larger than temper-
ature effect and humidity effect, except in some conditions that the
workers ended the work in advance or the environment intensity

Table 10
The combined effect analysis of environment and work intensity on physiological parameters.

Physiological parameter Work condition DPP DPPE DPPW DPPC CED (%)

Rectal temperature (H2emoderate)-(H1-light) 1.02 0.44 0.7 0.12 11.76

(H3emoderate)-(H1-light) 0.78 0 0.7 0.08 10.26
(H4emoderate)-(H1-light) 1.34 0.52 0.7 0.12 8.96
(H5emoderate)-(H1-light) 1.05 0.3 0.7 0.05 4.31
(H6emoderate)-(H1-light) 1.12 0.42 0.7 0 0
(H7emoderate)-(H1-light) 1.97 0.74 0.7 0.53 26.9
(H8emoderate)-(H1-light) 2.2 0.88 0.7 0.62 28.02
(H9emoderate)-(H1-light) 2.54 0.98 0.64 0.92 36.22
(H2eheavy)-(H1-light) 1.32 0.44 1.02 0.14 10.61
(H3eheavy)-(H1-light) 1.08 0 1.02 0.06 5.56
(H4eheavy)-(H1-light) 1.57 0.52 1.02 0.03 1.91
(H5eheavy)-(H1-light) 1.68 0.3 1.02 0.36 21.43
(H6eheavy)-(H1-light) 1.62 0.42 1.02 0.18 11.11
(H7eheavy)-(H1-light) 2.58 0.64 0.92 1.02 39.53
(H8eheavy)-(H1-light) 2.39 0.62 0.92 0.85 35.56
(H9eheavy)-(H1-light) 1.72 0.56 0.58 0.58 33.72
Heart rate (H2emoderate)-(H1-light) 24.6 4.8 10.2 9.6 39.02
(H3emoderate)-(H1-light) 20.2 8.8 10.2 1.2 5.94
(H4emoderate)-(H1-light) 42.8 14.8 10.2 17.8 41.59
(H5emoderate)-(H1-light) 28.3 24.2 10.2 6.1 21.55
(H6emoderate)-(H1-light) 25.8 11.4 10.2 4.2 16.28
(H7emoderate)-(H1-light) 61.3 28.4 10.2 22.7 37.03
(H8emoderate)-(H1-light) 66.3 27.8 10.2 28.3 42.68
(H9emoderate)-(H1-light) 67.6 32.8 14 20.8 30.77
(H2eheavy)-(H1-light) 43.4 4.8 22 16.6 38.25
(H3eheavy)-(H1-light) 33.8 8.8 22 3 8.88
(H4eheavy)-(H1-light) 38.3 14.8 22 1.5 3.92
(H5eheavy)-(H1-light) 47.8 24.2 22 1.6 3.35
(H6eheavy)-(H1-light) 52 11.4 22 18.6 35.77
(H7eheavy)-(H1-light) 85.8 29.6 25.6 30.6 35.66
(H8eheavy)-(H1-light) 65.6 30.8 15.8 19 28.96
(H9eheavy)-(H1-light) 67.6 30.8 16 20.8 30.77
Sweat rate (H2emoderate)-(H1-light) 6.9 1.8 4 1.1 15.94
(H3emoderate)-(H1-light) 3.82 0.34 4 0.16 4.25
(H4emoderate)-(H1-light) 11.21 3.24 4 3.98 35.45
(H5emoderate)-(H1-light) 6.55 0.85 4 1.7 25.92
(H6emoderate)-(H1-light) 7.5 1.49 4 2.01 26.83
(H7emoderate)-(H1-light) 12.15 5.14 4 3.01 24.73
(H8emoderate)-(H1-light) 14.66 8.99 4 1.67 11.4
(H9emoderate)-(H1-light) 14.98 16.53 3.18 4.73 31.55
(H2eheavy)-(H1-light) 9.16 1.8 7.16 0.2 2.18
(H3eheavy)-(H1-light) 7.7 0.34 7.16 0.87 11.36
(H4eheavy)-(H1-light) 14.52 3.24 7.16 4.12 28.37
(H5eheavy)-(H1-light) 10.43 0.85 7.16 2.41 23.14
(H6eheavy)-(H1-light) 10.91 1.49 7.16 2.26 20.73
(H7eheavy)-(H1-light) 16.9 4.53 7.35 5.02 29.68
(H8eheavy)-(H1-light) 20.94 8.7 6.83 5.41 25.85
(H9eheavy)-(H1-light) 19.55 18.37 8.35 7.17 36.68
PSI (H2emoderate)-(H1-light) 2.83 0.32 2.28 0.23 8.13
(H3emoderate)-(H1-light) 2.89 0.78 2.28 0.17 6.01
(H4emoderate)-(H1-light) 4.86 0.76 2.28 1.81 37.35
(H5emoderate)-(H1-light) 2.96 1.57 2.28 0.88 29.78
(H6emoderate)-(H1-light) 3.08 0.65 2.28 0.15 4.76
(H7emoderate)-(H1-light) 6.97 3.11 2.28 1.58 22.7
(H8emoderate)-(H1-light) 7.49 2.59 2.28 2.63 35.07
(H9emoderate)-(H1-light) 8.38 2.95 2.36 3.07 36.67
(H2eheavy)-(H1-light) 4.86 0.32 3.38 1.16 23.93
(H3eheavy)-(H1-light) 4.2 0.78 3.38 0.03 0.8
(H4eheavy)-(H1-light) 4.75 0.76 3.38 0.6 12.65
(H5eheavy)-(H1-light) 5.51 1.57 3.38 0.56 10.19
(H6eheavy)-(H1-light) 5.84 0.65 3.38 1.81 30.93
(H7eheavy)-(H1-light) 9.51 2.96 3.35 3.2 33.65
(H8eheavy)-(H1-light) 8.24 2.17 2.87 3.19 38.76
(H9eheavy)-(H1-light) 6.67 1.96 2.17 2.54 38.08
 X. Shi et al. / Building and Environment 69 (2013) 72e80
was too small to affect the parameters. So work intensity had an
important impact on the human physiological responses. In addi-
tion, when the environment intensity was large, the combined ef-
fect may also be larger than temperature effect and humidity effect,
such as in 40
Ce90%- heavy, the temperature effects on the rectal
temperature, heart rate, sweat rate and PSI were 0.28
C, 15.6 beats/
min, 2.4 g/min and 0.27 respectively, the humidity effects were
0.18
C, 10beats/min, 0.25 g/min and 0.05, and the combined effects
were 0.68
C, 26 beats/min, 8.55 g/min and 4.19.
4. The combined effect of environment and work intensity
For the combined effect of temperature and relative humidity
existed, the two factors could not reflect the environment
comprehensively, thus it was necessary to find an index to reflect
the temperature and relative humidity comprehensively.
4.1. Enthalpy of moist and humid air
Moist air is a mixture of dry air and water vapor. The enthalpy of
the air can reflect the heat contained in the air, and it includes the
enthalpy of dry air of 1 kg (the sensible heat) and the enthalpy of
corresponding evaporated water (the latent heat). The enthalpy can
be calculated as follows [27]:
h ¼ 1:01 T þ 0:001 dð2501 þ 1:85 TÞ (12)
where h is the enthalpy of moist and humid air, kJ/kg; T is the air
temperature,
C; d is the humidity ratio, g/kg, which can be ob-
tained by psychrometric chart according to the temperature and
relative humidity.
So the enthalpy is the composite of temperature and humidity,
the correlations between enthalpy and physiological parameters
are shown in Table 8.
As shown in Table 8, the correlations between enthalpy and
physiological parameters were statistically significant, thus the
enthalpy is able to reflect the effect of temperature and humidity on
physiological parameters comprehensively. So in this part, the
enthalpy was adopted to reflect the intensity of environment.
4.2. The combined effect of environment and work intensity on
human strain
The enthalpy was adopted to reflect the environment intensity
comprehensively and the combined effect of environment and
work intensity on human strain was quantified .The analysis pro-
cess was similar with that in part 3.2.
In this experiment, the enthalpy and its corresponding tem-
perature and relative humidity of the environment conditions are
shown in Table 9.
H1-light was adopted as the basic condition, then the degree of
combined effect caused by enthalpy and work intensity could be
calculated as follows:
DPPC DPP  DPPE  DPPW
CED ¼  100% ¼  100% (13)
DPP DPP
where DPPE is the environment effect.
The results of DPP, DPPE, DPPW, DPPC and CED are shown in
Table 10.
As shown in Table 10, for the physiological parameters in the
table, when the enthalpy increased, the environment effect had a
trend of increase, and when the work intensity increased, the work
effect would also increase. However, in some conditions, for people
ended the work in advance, the effects may decrease.
79
According to the data in Table 10, it could also be concluded that
the combined effect in the experiment was positive under most
conditions. But in H2-moderate, the combined effect on rectal
temperature was negative, the reason was that the heat in human
body could be dissipated completely in that condition. When the
enthalpy was H9, the combined effect on sweat rate was also
negative, that was because people ended the work in advance and
the high relative humidity in that condition affected the evapora-
tion of sweat.
It could also be found from the values of effects, when the
environment intensity was large, the environment effect and
combined effect on heart rate and PSI may be larger than work
effect, such as in H9-moderate, the environment effects on heart
rate and PSI were 32.8 beats/min and 2.95 respectively, the work
effects were 14 beats/min and 2.36, and the combined effects were
20.8 beats/min and 3.07. For rectal temperature, the work effect
was larger than environment effect, so the effect of work on rectal
temperature was more significant than environment. Moreover, for
sweat rate, when the enthalpy was large, the environment effect
and work effect would be larger than combined effect, such as in
H8emoderate, the environment effect, work effect and combined
effect were 8.99 g/min, 4 g/min and 1.67 g/min respectively.
5. Conclusions
It is an important task to study the relationship between the
heat strain and its influencing factors in hot and humid environ-
ments. In this paper, the existence of combined effect caused by
temperature and relative humidity was proven and the effects of
the influencing factors were quantified.
The following conclusions could be obtained:
(1) The combined effect caused by temperature and relative hu-
midity existed;
(2) With the increase of temperature, the temperature effect al-
ways increased and with the increase of relative humidity, the
humidity effect increased. In addition, the combined effect
caused by the environment factors also increased with the
increase of temperature and relative humidity under most
conditions, and the values of effects were always positive.
(3) When the experiment intensity was large, the combined effect
caused by temperature and relative humidity may be larger
than the accumulation of these two effects.
(4) The enthalpy was shown to be able to reflect the effect of
temperature and relative humidity on physiological parame-
ters comprehensively. The combined effect between enthalpy
and work intensity in the experiment was positive under most
conditions.
To sum up, the effects caused by the environment factors and
work intensity on human responses were analyzed and quantified
in this paper. It helps people understand the mechanism better and
provides a basis for the future research.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the subjects who vol-
unteered for this study. The authors also wish to express their
gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful com-
ments and advice given to improve this paper.
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